


Hide And Seek

by Phoenix_Emrys



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:57:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3063575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_Emrys/pseuds/Phoenix_Emrys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day in paradise suddenly turns into a nightmare as Jack struggles to save Daniel from an evil influence from his past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Woo Hoo. This story has an interesting history. It's the last 'gen' story I wrote before taking the slash fork in the road. It was intended for and promised to Gateways 3 - where it eneded up in its original incarnation, however, during the course of writing it I realized it did not want to BE a Gen story. Most emphatically not. I spent most of the story yelling at the boys to behave and basically forcing it to be something it didn't want to be. I've never been happy with it as a result. So, I'm fixing it. The Gen version will stay as it is, and I'm leaving it to Gateways. You really want to read it you'll have to buy the zine This version is substantially re-written, expanded, and I've let the boys go to do what they wanted to in the first place. And then some. Woo. True love will out. What can I tell you? Thanks to Biblio for her assistance on the slash version, the suggestions, catching my boo boos and ceaselessly nagging me to get Daniel naked ASAP.

Jack swore up, down and sideways if it was the very last thing he ever did, he was going to get that giggling geek out of the tree, and then, he was going to kill him. 

Very, very slowly. 

Then he was going to find a sarcophagus. 

Bring him back to life. 

And kill him again. 

Ah - it still wouldn’t be enough! 

Jack found it hard to believe just a few short hours ago he'd been having such a wonderful time.  The Stargate had for once deposited them in a veritable paradise adrift in a languidly green, tropical sea.  A large, lush volcanic island lousy with a fantastic abundance of greenery, not unlike the kind one would find on a similar South Sea location back on ole Terra Cognita.  Which would have been pleasant enough all on its own, but what made everything even more agreeable were the serene and friendly little brown people frolicking all over the place.  They didn’t wear a lot apart from the tan, but they sure knew how to say hello! 

It had been a hell of an afternoon.  SG-1 had sauntered through the Stargate and the second their feet hit the sand they were greeted by a mob of wide, smiling faces and a host of welcoming arms.  They were summarily hugged, flower bedecked, pinched, patted and enthusiastically hauled into the midst of a party already in progress showing no signs of letting up any time soon. Jack didn’t know what the hell the natives were celebrating, but they were having a high time of it and didn't seem to have any problems with making room for four more.  

Well, what the hell, when in Rome… 

Jack found himself deposited on the ground in front of an array of rather appetzing-looking eatables seeming to stretch on forever.  He felt slightly bemused, definitely overwhelmed and very much as if he'd just been dropped onto the set of Blue Hawaii. Warm tropical sun beating down, lightly toasting without roasting; invigorating sea breeze filling his nostrils with a refreshing, salty, ocean tang.  Picturesque clearing with a suitable jungle backdrop, the collection of little grass shacks behind him, the food for the big luau scene in front of him and a bevy of smiling native extras all around him.  And all over him.  Whoa! If the luscious little thing plastered to his right side blew in his ear one more time he was going to have to soak his head.  Or something. 

Mind you, the fact she looked young enough to be his daughter helped him put the whole thing in a little more realistic perspective. 

Jack allowed himself to relax. Surrounded by so much obvious good will and with no immediate evidence of anything about cast a cloud over all the happy sharing, well, why the hell not just kick back and go with the flow?  What was the harm in a little good, clean fun?   He didn’t often have an opportunity to bask in the warm glow of paradise, and having learned long ago to take whatever he could get whenever it came around, he did his level best to get completely into the spirit of things.  An attitude apparently shared by some, but not all of his companions. 

Jack cast his gaze across the sea of fruit and other eatables stretching between him and the two members of SG-1 camping on the opposite shore. Teal’c was sitting gravely sandwiched between two lovely ladies who had draped themselves around him on either side. An inscrutable Jaffa thorn between two luscious tropical roses. As his Jaffa brother sat solemnly, straight-backed and cross-armed, he alternately favoured each of young ladies flanking him and frankly fondling with deeply contemplative glances.  Jack allowed a wide grin to possess his face as he took in the sight, itching to know what was going on in Teal'c's head. 

Wow!  Make it so, or what? Teal’c suddenly looked across at him, acknowledging Jack's inquisitive leer with his characteristic raised eyebrow. 

“It would appear these are a very friendly people, O’Neill,” the Jaffa observed with solemn correctness. 

“Ya think?”  Jack shot back at him.  “Got a problem with that?” 

Teal’c considered his response for a minute. 

“I am not accustomed to it,” he finally replied.  “However, it is not unpleasant.” 

_ Teal’c old buddy, there’s hope for you yet! _

Jack flashed him a grin clearly saying, _Enjoy_ , and turned his attention to Carter. 

Hmm, no going with the flow, here.  The major was clearly NOT having as good a time with being downright 'appreciated' as Teal'c. She was looking extremely unsettled by the attention being lavished upon her by some obviously adoring male members of the assemblage. Half-naked and well muscled to boot. Jack only barely managed to resist the impulse to flex a compensatory bicep. Not that he was suddenly feeling threatened or anything by all the young bucks clustering around Carter and obviously - displaying.  Leastwise not nearly as threatened as Carter was by all the enthusiastic attention.  She was smiling with decided strain at the young, bronze Adonis making a fascinated examination of several strands of her blonde hair, while grimly attempting to ignore the ardent admirer on her other side taking happy possession of her hand and looking very much as if he wouldn’t mind handling quite a bit more.  She realised her CO was smirking at her and hurled a not-too-subtle _Help me!_ expression his way. 

The warm sunshine and warm feelings were making Jack feel rather generous, so he opted against teasing the crap out of her and slightly tempered his response.  “Relax, Major,” he said in a reassuring tone.  “All this might seem a bit weird, but from what I can see, it's just their way. Naturally friendly. They don’t mean any harm.  Mind you, I might be careful about eating anything anybody offers you.  You don’t want to get accidentally married or anything.” 

Sam made an ‘oh, that’s SO helpful’ face at him. 

“Seems to me you would know more about that than anyone else here, Sir,” she replied with more than a gleam in her eye, shifting her gaze to the woman at his side.  “By the way, your cap looks very nice on her, Colonel.  Better hope THAT doesn’t mean anything.” 

“Uh...” Jack replied hastily, as he reached over and quickly snatched his cap back.  So THAT’S where the darned thing had gotten to.  Had any other pieces of his kit gone missing?  He probably should go hunting for his brains, for starters.  

Hoo-Ha, time to start acting like he knew what he was doing. 

“So, Daniel,” Jack quipped, being loudly cheerful as he elbowed the man at his side.  “Any strange cultural thingees we should know about?  Daniel?” 

Jack had been dreading this moment.  The whole time they'd been here he'd deliberately avoided looking at the far too quiet and much too quiescent man beside him. Jack didn't want to look at Daniel because he didn't want to see him the way he knew he was going to be, still so sad, and still so far away, for all he was sitting right next to him. 

Daniel hadn't heard him; he was in the place he now ran to every moment he was free to.  The dark, solitary inner sanctuary he hid in, keeping everyone else outside and very far away. Jack tried not to choke on the knot of concern welling up in his throat as he sorrowfully took in the man close to him and yet worlds away.  Not right, Danny looking like that in the middle of all of this.  So not right, and yet, there he was.  Oblivious.  Not seeing, not caring, unaware of anything going on around him. 

So much for his hopes bringing Daniel here would make him feel better. 

 Daniel's long legs were tucked tightly into his chest, arms hugging them fiercely, his chin resting heavily on his drawn up knees. His distant, empty eyes glowering darkly in his tight face, looking piercingly at something only he could see. Jack could feel the wall around Daniel as tangibly as if it was made of five-foot thick concrete. So, apparently, could the little brown guys and gals.  They milled around the rest of them with quite endearing and innocent curiosity, physically exploring the members of SG-1 with unconcerned and somewhat disconcerting abandon.  All of them except for Danny-with-the-thunderclouds-on-his-brow.  Daniel was getting as cold a shoulder from their hosts as he was giving them. 

_ Crap.  What’s wrong with this picture? _

Jack's heart tumbled down into his boots, his simple contentment in the warmth and happiness around him instantly soured by the sight of his friend’s obvious, continuing unhappiness.  He'd really been hoping the infectious, almost aggressive hospitality of the folks here would get through to Daniel and snap him out of this - funk - he was in. More than hoping, it was the reason Jack had asked for this mission in the first place.  This 'going native' stuff wasn't really his thing, but it was most definitely Daniel's. Of all of them, Daniel should be enjoying this the most.  This was the sort of thing he lived for.  

Correction.  Used to. Used to live for. When he used to be Daniel. Before he started changing. 

Jack felt harsh, cold sorrow clutch him as he stared mournfully at the distant, glowering stranger at his side. God, but he missed Daniel. The Daniel he used to know before it happened and all the good in both their lives started going bad.  It would have been utterly impossible for the Daniel of happier days to be in the middle of this raucous native free-for-all without instantly jumping up and joining in.  No matter how wild or strange, whatever weird-ass dance or ritual going on; Daniel was your man.  The original 'try anything once' kid. He'd be right in there like your proverbial dirty shirt, just one of the guys in the war paint, the beads and the feathers or what the hell else the well-dressed native was barely wearing this week, whooping it up, dancing up a storm, running around in circles, getting roaring drunk on a thimble-full of the local version of moonshine, full of life, his eyes shining.   

A joy to behold. 

Not sitting there like he was now, staring, a dead-eyed, emotionless shadow of his former self.  Becoming even more of a shadow with each passing day.  Starting with the day he'd stood and watched stone-faced while they put Sha'uri into the ground. Then he'd turned his back on her grave and started walking away from her, from everyone who loved him, and from himself. 

Daniel had already traveled so far from what he once was, Jack was beginning to fear his friend would never be able to find his way back. 

It had been a slow, insidious journey.  Terrible to watch, impossible to prevent.  Not that he hadn't tried.  Jack understood grief, only too well. He'd tried to reach out to Daniel, tried to lend a hand, only to have Daniel turn his back and walk away from every single offer. During the months since Sha'uri's death Jack had watched helplessly as Daniel slipped away.  Little by little, piece by piece, Daniel was disappearing, everything making him 'Daniel' seeming to slide from him and vanish into blackness. Daniel was leaving him in agonizing increments and what was worse, Daniel didn't seem to care.  Didn't care it was happening, didn't care he was vanishing, couldn't be bothered making the effort to stop the slow slide.  There was such a thing as willing yourself to die.  Jack was watching Daniel do it before his very eyes, and there didn’t seem to be a damned thing he could do to stop it. 

Sha'uri was gone, and she was taking Daniel with her. He'd pinned all his hopes on finding her and now she was dead he had a big hole in the middle of his life where his hope for her used to be.  Daniel had never come out and said he was giving up - Daniel never talked to anyone about anything going on with him any more - but he certainly was acting like someone who'd decided they had nothing left to live for.  It wasn't true, but if that was the way Daniel felt - now Sha'uri was gone he was all alone because there was no one else around who cared about him - whose fault was that? 

Whose fault, Jack?  Okay, maybe Daniel had turned his back and walked, but who had let him?  Who'd taken no for an answer, secretly relieved to be turned down because that meant he didn't have - have to - well he just didn't have to.  Who'd let Daniel walk away counting on the guy's demonstrated talent for coping with his own crap all by himself, waiting confidently for him to get over it on his own and get back to being Daniel. 

It hadn't happened.  It wasn't happening.  Daniel was steadily drowning in a sea of his own grief, right before his eyes.  The proof was sitting beside him, not staring him right in the face. 

_ Nothing left to live for, Danny? I've been there too, my friend.  Was going to take the same way out, as well.  Only I was going to do it the fast and easy way.  Bullet to the brain.  Not the way you've chosen.  Killing yourself by inches.  But it's the same thing, Danny, same damned thing.  And it's not right.  I know that now, and guess who taught me.  You did.  Time to repay the favour.  I've let this go on long enough. You've shut me out, and I've let you. What's even worse, I haven't given you what you've most needed from me.  You do have something to live for, Daniel.  Maybe I haven't had the guts to let you know, but I'll be damned if I'll let you leave me.  And I'll be damned if I let her take you away from me again.  Not without a fight. _

Jack mustered his determination and nudged Daniel again. This time he was going to get an answer if he had to shake Daniel stupid until he acknowledged him “Danny!”  he began loudly.  “Throw me a clue, here.  What’s going on?  Do you know what these guys are saying?” 

Daniel started guiltily and swiftly turned to look at Jack, veiling the embarrassment in his eyes as he began speaking.  “I’m sorry, Jack,” he mumbled.  “I was - was - I was thinking.  What did you say?” 

Jack gave him an ‘it happens, no big deal’ shrug.  “We’ve been having a wonderful time, language barrier and all, but I was wondering if you could - “ 

“Do my job, perhaps?”  Daniel sighed resignedly.  “For a change?” 

“Hey!”  Jack’s rejoinder was only mildly indignant.  He absolutely, positively did NOT want to start a fight with Daniel.  Not now, not again.  Too much of that.  Enough of that. He wanted Daniel to talk to him, not get his back up and get all defensive because he thought Colonel O'Neill was putting him down.  Again. 

“Don’t put words in my mouth, Daniel.  I did NOT say that.  And I didn’t imply it, either.” 

The blue eyes meeting his were tired, sad, and far too old.  They were also really open and searching, for the first time in a long time.  Contact?  Looking at him, seeing - Jack hoped - concern, not condemnation. Seeing a friend, someone who missed him, cared about him, someone who - 

Daniel lowered his head and started speaking again. 

“I know you didn’t say it, but maybe you should have.  Maybe you also should take me somewhere and spend several hours pounding some sense into me.” 

"Well, okay, if that's what you really want," Jack teased lightly as he gently punched Daniel's arm.  "But I'd be just as happy settling for talking, how about you?" 

Oh, he was liking the sound of this.  This was starting to sound like the Daniel he used to know. He was liking it even better when Daniel looked up at him again, grinned ruefully and said quietly, "Talking is good." 

_ Oh yeah, Danny, talking is great.  Talk to me.  Keep talking to me. _

Daniel's wide, blue eyes were clearer than Jack had seen them for longer than he could remember.  Alert, aware, looking deep into his, as if he was needing something.  Needing it bad. 

“You were asking me if I could understand what they are saying," Daniel began slowly, a slight crease of concentration beginning to furrow his brow.   "Not a whole lot, I’m afraid.  I was always a little weak on my Polynesian studies.  Not one of my major areas of interest.” 

Jack had a light quip ready on the tip of his tongue, but held it back as the evidence of Daniel's growing engagement not only with him but also with everything going on around them had Jack holding his breath in heady anticipation.  Jack hovered between hope and disappointment as Daniel looked intently first at him, and then carefully all around them.  As if he was finally waking up and joining them after a long sleep. 

"Jack?"  Daniel asked softly, as he licked his lower lip before gnawing it worriedly between his teeth.  "Uh - where are we?" 

"Excuse me?" Jack blurted out, totally bewildered by the question.  "What are you talking about, where are we?  Same damned place we've been all afternoon - where the hell have you been?" 

"That's a good question, Jack," Daniel replied, real fear glinting briefly in his eyes as he turned to the man beside him seeking from him an explanation obviously desperately needed.  "I wish I knew." 

Crap, Daniel MEANT it, he wasn't kidding.  He really didn't know, he was scared because he didn't know and Jack realised he was feeling a little spooked himself as a result.  This was getting creepy, but before anybody panicked and started making an already spooky situation worse  - 

Too late. 

Daniel's abrupt, harsh gasp cut through Jack, startling him.  Daniel sat frozen in shock, staring straight ahead, his mouth agape.  Wide, disbelieving eyes skimmed over the heads of the people seated on the other side of the spread, becoming riveted on something making Daniel go whiter than a sheet and causing him to completely forget to breathe. Jack hurriedly looked around, following along Daniel's line of sight, trying to see what it was making Daniel act like he'd just seen a ghost. 

Oh.  Geez Louise.   Funny he should mention ghosts, 'cause unless he was very much mistaken the woman standing next to the that tall guy with all the feathers and beads and even taller head-dress definitely qualified as one.  A ghost, that is.  Holy crap, what the hell was this?  A couple of hours in the sun and he was seeing things? 

He was looking at a ghost.  Funny, he'd always heard they were thin and wispy and floated around dragging chains and moaning and stuff, they didn't stand there looking as firm and solid as everyone else, like they were flesh and blood and breathing, and maybe he should just stop looking at her now, 'cause he was starting to get really freaked and he had to get his head back on straight and…logical, think logic. There had to be a logical explanation for what he was seeing.  No such thing as ghosts.  Dead.  She was dead.  He'd helped put her in the ground.  Then how come she was standing over there - looking right back at him?  

OW!  What was that? Pain, he was feeling pain, clutching fingers biting into the flesh of his forearm, someone had a grip on him, going to be drawing blood in a minute if they didn't ease off. God, he hoped he wasn't seeing what he thought he was seeing because if he was, that would mean… 

“Sha’uri?”  Daniel sobbed almost inaudibly, his voice quavering with  horrible hope and disbelief. 

So much for thinking this was all a trick of the light or a weird vision brought on by some local moonshine he hadn't even tried yet.  Sha'uri was standing over there, large as life - pardon the expression -  he was seeing her, and so was Daniel.  Sonofabitch!  Well, he'd been wanting to try and get back some more quality time with his friend, but joint hallucinations didn't make his wish-list of things he wanted to share with Daniel.  But there ya go. 

Jack knew the precise moment Daniel was going to up and bolt toward her and already had his hand on Daniel's shoulder, pushing him back down before he'd barely started to move.  No matter who they both thought they were seeing, Sha’uri was dead.  Dead and buried.  No doubt about.  It didn't mean squat who she looked like, there was no way that gal over yonder COULD be Sha'uri, so until he found out what was going on here he was not about to let Daniel go running off half-cocked, flinging himself at who knows who or what she was. Jack didn't believe in ghosts, but he'd also seen enough in the time they'd been going through the gate to know there were any number of possible explanations for what they were seeing, none of them involving anything supernatural, but possibly involving stuff they wanted no part of all the same. 

Jack didn't want to have anything to do with 'ghosts'; didn't want to see one, didn't want to have a chat with one and certainly didn't want anyone on his team becoming one. 

"Let me go, Jack!"  Daniel bristled angrily, trying to twist out from under the hand clamped on his shoulder.  "Look - are you blind!  It's Sha'uri!  She's standing right there, Jack, I have to - LET ME GO!" 

"No way, Dannyboy," Jack shook his head and hung on stubbornly.  "Just because she looks like Sha'uri doesn't mean she is.  She CAN'T be - you know that.  Calm down, now, buddy, stay with me.  Let's not rush into anything we both might not live to regret." 

Warning bells were going off in Jack's head so loudly he could hear the strident clanging plainly over the rising level of noise and confusion suddenly erupting all around them as if cued by 'Sha'uri's' appearance.  He tried to catch Sam and Teal'c's attention, but all of a sudden the natives were clustering around them, drawing their focus.  Shielding them from his sight.  He couldn't see them and they couldn't see what was happening, didn't realise who was standing behind them. 

The guy with the feathers had noticed them staring bug-eyed at the Shau'ri wannabe beside him and turned to have a look at her too.  He immediately started jumping around and howling - Jack couldn't help it, he had to say it -  like he'd just seen a ghost, waving this big horking rattle he was holding first at 'Sha'uri', who completely ignored him, and then at both of them.  No, that was wrong.  Not both of them. Mostly Danny.  He was yelling and waving the rattle at Danny.  Really yelling and developing an alarmingly major attitude problem.  The dude was getting extremely pissed.  Rapidly. At Daniel.   

Crap, here we go again, and for once it wasn't even anything Daniel had said. 

The feathered dude stopped yelling and shaking the rattle and started staring.  He had eyes like lasers and he was using them to sear Daniel to the bone.  Daniel flinched as if he could feel the beams going right through him and shrunk up against Jack like he was suddenly in pain.  Or scared.  The Boogie Man made a strange, grunting sound then turned the evil eye on Jack. An eerie, tingling feeling raked over and through him.  Daniel was pressed up to him, tight, shuddering, clutching at him, touching, holding.  Jack felt weird, hot, his head was spinning in lazy circles, his clothes were irritating his skin, itchy, scratchy, he wanted to \- Daniel was so close, almost close enough to…to… 

What the hell was going on?  Jack shook his head vigorously to get rid of all the weirdness in it.  He was appalled to discover he had his arms around Daniel, was holding him tightly clasped to him, almost in his frigging lap!  His head was lowered, Daniel's head was resting in the crook of his arm, they were frigging close enough to - to -   

N o WAY! 

With a huge gulp Jack let Daniel go and pushed him clumsily, roughly away with the fierce force of his embarrassment. He hadn't actually meant the move to be that emphatic, but they'd both needed some distance pronto, and besides, Daniel knew it was nothing personal.  Daniel's cheeks were flaming; he was breathing heavy and wouldn't meet his eye.  Crap.  Daniel was just as freaked.  Jack didn't know what had come over the two of them, but he'd snapped them both out of it in time.  No problem. 

The Boogie Man huffed at them again as if what he was seeing wasn't much to his liking, then he suddenly opened his mouth and howled like someone was slicing vital body parts off. Still shrieking he shook his fist at them and then snapped his wrist violently like he was flinging a handful of something right into their faces. Jack blinked reflexively at the unmistakable sensation of something gritty striking his face and eyes.  Daniel flinched and threw his arm up defensively across his face at the same time. Okay, this was way too much like twilight zone time for him.  Definitely not cool. 

Jack swiped his fingers across his face to clear the phantom grit out of his eyes.  His danger meter had been screaming ' _Will Robinson'_ for the past few minutes.  This had gone way past creepy and was rapidly heading into scary. Time to go now.  All the spooky special effects aside, the Boogie Man's behaviour was now well off the acceptable scale. Jack had no idea what the Feathered Wonder's problem was, but whatever he was on about, it was major, and it seemed to be mostly about Daniel. That was simply tragic, but Jack remembered he'd forgotten to pack his empathy before leaving the house this morning.  Boogie was just going to have to find a way to live with his issues, 'cause Jack had no intention of letting him explore them at Daniel's expense. 

Whoops \- man on the move, here! Boogie was coming right at them, stalking around the banquet on the ground, barking orders, shaking the rattle, jingling and jangling rapidly in their direction, never taking his eyes off Daniel.  The pool of brown inhabitants parted like the Red Sea before him. People scurried to get out of his way like shit-scared bunnies hot to be doing what he was yelling at them to be doing.  Wait - where was the woman who had been right beside him?  The one who looked like Sha’uri? Where did she go?  One second she had been right - there.  Then - poof. 

He really hated it when that happened. 

“Colonel?” 

Carter.  He couldn't see her behind the bronze wall of writhing bodies suddenly forming around both her and Teal'c, but he could tell from the terse urgency in her voice she'd picked up on the new scent of danger wafting in on the formerly calming sea breeze.  She sounded like she was ready for action and waiting for his lead.  He didn’t need to see Teal'c to know he was likewise. 

“Okay kids,” he called across to them in a calm, conversational tone.  Nothing to worry about, guys, go on with your dancing, just talking to my friends, asking them about the weather, no big deal, pay no attention.  “I think it's time to go, don't you?  Let’s see if we can get up nice and easy and make our way back to the Stargate without anybody getting hurt.  Especially us.” 

Jack had his hand firmly wrapped around Daniel’s upper arm, meaning to pull the archaeologist up with him as he got to his feet. As it was, their hosts had other ideas about any of them getting to leave quietly.  Or at all. 

Ah crap, this wasn’t part of the plan!  About the same time as Carter and Teal’c were being grabbed and hauled to their feet Jack felt very strong hands on his own arms being equally helpful. They held him helpless, unable to do a damned thing but watch his teammates being quickly and efficiently divested of their gear.  While they stripped him down to his T-shirt in turn he did a quick visual check to the left, knowing what he would see.  Yup, Danny in the bag as well.  Shit!  How had he let this happen?  Stone knives and bearskins, and they had gotten the drop on them all the same. Way to go, O’Neill. 

Well, that was what he got for forgetting there was no such thing as paradise! 

He was about to try to yell something across at Carter and Teal’c when both he and Daniel were roughly turned around and dragged away, apparently in order to be offered up to the Boogie Man still huffing and puffing and jingling his way toward them.  Who was not only the one with the worst taste in accessories but also seemed to be the guy in charge around here. 

“Daniel?”  Jack called across to the man by his side, trying to project a little moral support.  Daniel was in the clutches of four burly guys who were being none-too-gentle with him.  They'd pinioned Daniel's arms roughly behind his back and were man-handling him over to Boogie, who was glaring fixedly and fiercely at Daniel in a way making Jack want to do a little glaring of his own.  Followed by severe pounding and very possibly killing. Make that definitely killing.  Boogie was glaring and screaming and waving the rattle at Daniel.  Jack was itching to make the creep eat it, but seeing as how he had problems of his own in the shape of several bozos holding on to him, thinking unkind thoughts was about all he could manage at the moment. 

Christ, the bastards were strong! 

“I’m guessing this is the shaman,” Daniel began uncertainly, blinking rapidly as if he was deeply confused. He wasn't the only one.  “Tribal…medicine man, kahuna - no that’s a Hawaiian term sorry, hard to concentrate, can’t think of the -“ 

“It’s okay, Daniel, I get it," Jack supplied quickly.  "Witch Doctor, right?”  No need for Daniel to waste time and energy on stuff that didn't matter right now.  Calling the guy 'Creep' worked fine for him; all he wanted to know was how to make these other creeps let go of them! 

Daniel frowned unhappily.  “Well, that is a little more of a colloquial term than I was going for but -“ 

“Daniel, it’s okay.  I don’t care what we call him.  Let’s just focus on trying to find out what the hell is going on. Any clues what his problem is – shit! Ow!  Watch it!  I bruise easy!” 

The feathered man was shaking the rattle at Daniel’s head. Jabbing the thing all around him, and then right into his face, making oogie boogie noises the whole time.  The closer Boogie got with the thing, the more freaked Daniel seemed to be getting. He started to struggle against the men holding him, trying to duck his head back and out of the way of the in-yer-face rattle attack.  But the Boogie Man was pretty good.  It didn't matter how hard Daniel tried to evade the jabs to his face, no matter which way he turned - wham!  There the creep was with the rattle. Watching the weird, menacing interaction between Daniel and the tormenting bauble on a stick was almost fascinating, There was even a strange rhythm to it; duck - thrust, bob- thrust, dip - parry, but this wasn't a game, certainly wasn't a joke. Boogie wasn't kidding and Daniel definitely wasn’t having a good time.  He was just about ready to jump out of his freaking skin and Boogied looked like he wasn't too far from giving him a helping hand. 

"Hey!" Jack shouted at the witch doctor, trying to get his attention.  Anything to get it off Daniel, even for a second.  To give Daniel a chance to catch his breath, regain his composure, so he could do his stuff, talk to the guy and hopefully get them out of this mess.   This trying to make nice with the natives - communicating, finding common ground - this was Daniel's department.  The guy had as much of a gift for getting people to open up and talk to him as he did for pissing them off. Strange but true.  Right now they needed the former to be happening in place of the latter.  They needed to know what was going on and if they had any hope of fixing it before things went from bad to worse. 

The problem was, Daniel didn't look like he was in any shape to be having any meaningful dialogues at the moment.  So even though communicating wasn't exactly Jack's forte… 

"Hey!"  Jack yelled again, louder this time.  "I'm the leader!  You've got problems with us, I'm the one you should be talking to!" 

Or not.  Crap! 

The Boogie Man completely ignored him and grabbed Daniel's chin so hard his fingers started to turn white from the pressure, holding Daniel so he couldn’t move his head at all.  He started banging Daniel on the head with the damned rattle and shrieking right into his face.  The whole thing looked so absurd Jack almost burst out laughing, but Daniel's evident, growing terror was anything but funny.  Or anything like Daniel, even.  It didn't make sense.  Nothing that was happening made sense.  Jack had watched Daniel sneer at System Lords and not blink, the guy did NOT scare easy.  And yet some feathered clown beating him about the head with a kid's toy had Daniel so scared he was just this side shy of needing a change of underwear. 

Panicking.  Daniel was panicking.  Daniel didn't panic.  He didn't.  He just - didn't.  That was like saying Daniel would turn tail in a crisis situation and run out on them. He wouldn't do that either.  Not in a million years. 

What in the hell was going on here? 

“JACK!” 

Okay, he’d had just about enough of this. This was NOT fun, it wasn't making any sense, it was his fault it was happening, and they'd sort the whole thing out once they got home.   Daniel was scared, he was pissed - it was time to go. It was a long shot, but maybe with all the attention focused on the pair of them Carter and Teal'c were having better luck. 

“Carter!  Teal’c!”  He hurled the call for help behind him, hoping they were in a better position than he was to come to Daniel’s aid. 

“Here, Colonel.”  That was Carter's voice, behind him.  A fair distance behind him. “Are you okay?  We can’t see you.” 

“Just peachy, Major!” he snarled, not at her, but at the dashing of his hopes.  “And you?” 

“We’re okay, sir.  They’re not hurting us, just seem to be holding us.  Teal’c is tied up, but my hands are free.” 

“I don’t suppose there is any chance you can get to a WEAPON?” 

“No chance, sir, that I can see.  For the moment.”  Carter’s deliberate emphasis of the last phrase was not lost on him. 

“Hold that thought, Major!” he bellowed back. “Stay frosty, and grab the first opening you can.  Your first priority is to get back to the gate and get back-up.  I don't want to start shooting these people, especially if this is a simple misunderstanding we can settle another way, but we're badly outnumbered, here." 

"We'd noticed, sir," Carter shouted back, her voice getting farther away.  "We won't let you down, Colonel!" 

_ Here's hoping, Carter. _

“How ya holding up, Danny?”  Jack turned his attention back to his friend.  The witch doctor had stopped hitting him on the head while he and Carter had been chatting but he was still holding Daniel's chin so tightly it was starting to bruise. 

Daniel slid his eyes toward him, unable to look at him any other way.  A sharp, harsh bark of laugher leapt from his chest.  “I feel strange.  I'm scared, I’m so scared - I don’t understand, Jack - I don’t know why this guy is making me feel so scared! What’s happening Jack?  Ahhhhh!” 

An involuntary cry of pain escaped Daniel as the shaman violently wrenched his face away, breaking the eye contact between them. 

“Hey!”  Jack roared.  “Cut that out!  What’s your damned problem?  Why don’t you pick on somebody in your own species, ya CREEP!” 

Aha!  Finally!  THAT got his attention! Boogie suddenly let go of Daniel, then turned and looked Jack up and down, taking his time as he sized him up.  He looked back at Daniel and then at Jack again, as if making up his mind about something.  Then he nodded, gobbled at the bozo brigade and next thing Jack knew he and Daniel were stumbling off together, going for a walk in the wake of the wacko. 

Whether they wanted to or not.  "Hey, Daniel!"  Jack called across to the man being similarly forced to follow the witch doctor.  Jack didn't bother trying to fight the hands holding him. There wasn't any point; the guys were way too strong.  He called out to Daniel again, trying to reach out to his friend with his voice even though there was no way he could actually touch him. 

Daniel wouldn't look at him.  Jack couldn't tell if he was even hearing him.  Daniel seemed to be buried down deep in himself again, barely aware of or reacting to the rough, aggressive hands pushing him mercilessly onward.  He was dumbly submitting to what was happening, giving no outward indication he was aware of his situation, or if he even gave a damn.  About either himself, or his partner in peril.  Daniel looked like he'd given up. 

Jack couldn't get over it.  Couldn't - wouldn't believe it.  Give up?  Daniel NEVER gave up.  Never.  This was so not Daniel.  He just was not seeing this.  Not, not - oh hello, end of the line?  What have we here now? 

Boogie stopped the parade in front of a little mat on the ground with a bunch of stuff already on laid out on it.  Jack quickly scanned the collection.  What he saw didn't make him any the wiser for the effort.  An assortment of powders and dried grass and leaves in hollowed out gourds, some bundles of leaves tied together, a couple of crystals, wooden bowls with water in them.  So far, confusing, but nothing to get his shorts in a knot over.  Oh wait - spoke too soon!  Definite blip registering on the danger meter. Long, slender, obsidian shard jammed into a bone handle, the shard with obviously laboriously worked, shaped, very razor-sharp edges.  This was a knife.  Definitely a knife. 

A knife.  Oh shit! 

Now he was worried.  Definitely worried.  A quick glance at Daniel's vacant, staring face told him he seemed to be the only one.  Crap!  Get with it, Daniel!  Jack didn't want to get angry with Daniel, but they needed information and of the two of them Daniel was the only one who might have half a change of getting it. 

"Daniel?"  Jack urged gently.  Nothing.  Not even a flicker of reaction.  "Daniel!"  Jack hissed, louder this time.  Still nothing. Guess it was still up to him to try talking their way out of this.  Whatever 'this' was. 

“Ah, excuse me," Jack appealed to the feathered man standing on the other side of the mat with his eyes closed, muttering something in a low, guttural voice. "Can we talk about this?” 

That got him his arm wrenched for his pains. 

_ Ow.  Apparently not. _

The men holding Daniel forced him down to his knees a few feet in front of the mat, and then let him go.  Jack was hoping for the same, but no such luck.  Daniel didn't even seem to notice he was no longer being restrained.  He just sat there, sunk back on his haunches, slumped over, head bowed.  Two men bearing torches moved in to flank him on either side.  He took no more notice of them than he was of anything else. 

"Daniel!"  Jack called out to him again.  "Daniel, LOOK at me!  Please!"  he entreated.  "Are you still with me, buddy?" 

Daniel's shoulders shook slightly, a faint ripple of movement, like a tenuous tremor of life.  Jack felt his heart hammering with anxious anticipation, hardly daring to breathe as he watched Daniel's head finally come up with what seemed to be deliberate, agonizing slowness. 

The blue eyes beneath him were blank for a moment.  Then Daniel blinked, took a deep breath, focused. LOOKED at him.  "Yeah, Jack," he said slowly, uncertainty hanging in his voice as well as his expression.  "I- I'm here.  But where are we - what's - what's…" 

Daniel's eyes went blank again, his voice faltered and trailed away.  He didn't say another word despite several frantic attempts to get him to respond.  Gone again, like he was in some sort of trance.  Jack spared him a final, worried glance and then turned his attention back to the Boogie Man. 

The witch doctor had finished with the muttering and now was hunkering down in front of the mat.  He'd put the rattle down, picked up one of the bowls of water and was chanting in a sonorous, quiet monotone as he put a couple of pinches of a white, coarse, crystalline substance into the water. He swirled the water around in the bowl, peered at it, sang to it some more, then got up and started to advance on Daniel.  The angel of death would probably be wearing a kinder expression. 

Showtime.  Oh, crap. 

Boogie dipped his fingers in the bowl, still chanting monotonously, then flung a large quantity of the droplets into Daniel’s blank face. Whoa!  Definite reaction, here!  Daniel violently flinched as the water struck him.  Boogie continued chanting and flicking, peering at Daniel blinking and shrinking away from every liquid volley.  The witch doctor was clearly expecting something to happen, also clearly not seeing what he was looking for.  Which wasn't making him very happy. The dude looked definitely pissed.  That probably wasn’t good. 

Boogie stopped chanting and huffed and glowered at Daniel, who'd stopped cowering now he wasn't getting water thrown in his face and had resumed his former 'out to lunch' slouch.  Daniel looked back at the witch doctor with uncaring eyes and a wooden expression.  Boogie heaved a sharp snort of disgust, whirled and stomped back to his goodies.  After putting down the bowl he retrieved another object from the mat.  Plan B appeared to be one of those bundles of tied up, dried leaves. Boogie stalked over to the torch to Daniel's right, and thrust the bundle into the flame.  It sharply ignited, scattering sparks, then settled down to copiously smoking. When it was fuming alarmingly he proceeded to wave it about Daniel’s head and body, smothering him in a dark cloud of thick, fetid smoke. 

Ugh.  It smelled bad enough from here.  It couldn’t have been any fun where Daniel was.  Wasn’t going to do his allergies any good. 

Sure enough, Jack could hear him after only a couple of seconds of being completely fogged in, coughing and choking and sneezing. 

“Gah!”  Daniel croaked and weakly tried to wave the smoke away.  “This is awful!  I can barely breathe!” 

Ah well, if the stuff could finally get him to wake up it couldn't be all bad! 

As soon as Daniel spoke the witch doctor drew back with his free hand and viciously backhanded Daniel with so much force he nearly knocked him over. Pure, blind fury knifed through Jack, but he didn't move or let it show.  Jack knew well enough by now it wouldn’t do him any good to struggle so he didn’t.  Besides, he didn't want to give this painted bully anything more he could use against Daniel.  Jack was past reacting pointlessly or blindly now.  Matters had definitely progressed to the ‘things I need to do if it’s the last thing I ever do’ stage.  One thing he knew for certain.  If Boogie laid one more hand on Daniel he wasn't going to see the sun rise on another day. 

Evidently done with the smoke and still not satisfied by the results, Boogie gave Daniel a disgusted look and tossed the smoking stinkweed.  He stood over Daniel a few seconds longer, watching him weakly coughing and struggling to recover from the blow he'd just received. The look on his craggy, painted face withering enough to kill.  He gave Daniel a snort of derision before turning his back on him and stalking off towards his stuff. 

Jack anxiously divided his attention between Daniel and his tormentor. Daniel still looked pale and shaken, but he seemed to be recovering.  Jack tried to catch his eye, with no success.  Boogie was standing before the mat, eyes closed, muttering under his breath.  More praying?   Getting ready for Plan C? 

Why did he have the feeling he really wasn’t going to like what was coming next? 

Daniel was looking better now, all things considered, looking a lot more like himself than he had since this whole nightmare had started.  He was calm, deep concentration furrowing his brow.  Jack had seen that look on his friend’s face, many, many times. It was so familiar, so DANIEL, so good to finally see.  Welcome back, Dannyboy.  I've missed you. 

"Daniel!"  Jack called to him.  "Are you all right?" 

“I'm fine, Jack," Daniel murmured, the crease in his brow deepening. "I'm just trying to…give me a minute…" 

"Love to, Daniel," Jack replied.  "Problem is, we might not HAVE one. You might not have one. The Boogie Man over there sees to have it in for you for some reason.  You got ANY clues why?  Anything?" 

“Yeah, Jack," Daniel nodded emphatically.  "As a matter of fact, I think I do.  Sorry I didn't say sooner, I was - I was kinda out of it there for a bit, not sure why. It's been happening a lot lately, starting to worry me. These headaches I keep getting.  They're getting worse, sometimes I'm not sure where I am, how I - " 

"Daniel!"  Jack interrupted gently, but firmly. What he was hearing was definitely concerning him, but it wasn't anything they could do anything about at the moment.  For sure top of his list of things to look into further once they got out of this pickle they were in.  Presuming they did.  But for now - 

"Give it to me later, Daniel, okay?"  Jack smiled encouraging at the man kneeling beside him, and was happy to see Daniel smile back.  It wasn't a big one, but it was the best thing Jack had seen so far today. "I promise I'll listen when we're not inches away from God only knows what about to happen to us next, but right now - focus on the immediate problem, 'kay?  What's going on - now - and what we need do to get these guys to let us go?" 

Daniel nodded, the look of intense concentration back.  "You're right, Jack, you're right.  Focus. I can do that. I know this. I think I know what he's doing. It looks pretty bad, but I don't think we've got anything to worry about. This \- this is some kind of purification ritual.  Salt water, smudge stick, rattles, the yelling, the intimidation, token blows, He - he’s trying to - cleanse me of something.” 

"Wouldn't soap and water be easier?"  Jack asked. 

"It's not that kind of cleansing, Jack," Daniel smiled back at him. 

"Well, WHAT then?"  Jack returned stubbornly.  "What exactly is he trying to 'cleanse' you of?  The guy's been roughing you up something fierce, and looking at you like he thinks you're pond scum.  Never mind he never bothered ASKING you whether you wanted him to slap you around, gas you and scare the shit out of both of us. All with the best of intentions, I'm sure.  That's rude enough for me all by itself, everything else he's done to you is definitely pushing the 'good intentions' envelope.  Maybe you think this free public service you're getting is nothing to be concerned about, but - call me crazy - from what I've been seeing, I'm plenty worried." 

Daniel just looked at him with that – look he got when he just KNEW he was right, and couldn’t explain how. The one always driving Jack crazy because he just found it so hard to trust what he didn’t know himself without something more concrete to go on than “well, I just, KNOW, that’s all.” 

They’d had more fights over just this very thing and yet here Daniel was, asking him to take it on faith yet again.  Jack just hoped this wasn’t finally the time when Daniel was at last proven wrong. This definitely was not the way he wanted to win the argument. 

“I know what it looks like, Jack," Daniel explained in the same, tired, patient tone he assumed when he accepted the inevitable evil of justifying himself.  Again.  At length. "I can't explain it, but I don’t think he means me any real harm. He's not going to hurt us. I know it.  He’s trying to help.” 

"Daniel," Jack groaned. 

"Jack, TRUST me!"  Daniel cried out suddenly, his eyes flaring with an angry, hurt light.  "Just for once, can't you just \- trust me?" 

Daniel's earnest, entreating eyes, begging across the space between them, pleading with him to take a simple leap of faith.  So little he was asking, and yet so much, with so much at stake… 

He had movement out of the corner of his eye.  Boogie was coming back.  With a knife in his hand.  Heading straight for Daniel.  So much for 'not meaning us any harm'.   J _esus, Daniel, this is what I'm always trying to tell you, sometimes 'faith' just isn't enough. Or even right.  I'll spare us both the 'I told you so's'._

He didn't the time to bask in his bitter victory; he was going to be much too busy praying.  Not a thing he'd ever done much in his life, certainly not since Charlie had died, but right here and now he'd sell his soul to whoever'd have it just so long as what it looked like was about to happen  \- wouldn't. 

Boogie reached Daniel and stood staring at him, while Daniel looked very calmly back up at him.  Much too calmly, way too calm, almost accepting.  Resigned.  Boogie was menacing, Jack was close to crapping himself, and Daniel was just calm.  So quiet and eerily serene it was scary. 

Boogie poked the knife at his softly smiling intended victim and boomed a few phrases at him. Jack might not have been able to understand the words, but there was no mistaking the tone.  Judgment time.  End of the road.  Prepare to meet thy maker. Any last requests? 

How about letting us go?  No? 

The witch doctor finished making with the pronouncement of doom and then just stood there, silently glaring at the condemned man.  Daniel stared back up at him, not moving, not even blinking. Neither worried, nor scared. 

“I got some of that,” Daniel announced suddenly, making Jack just about jump out of his skin at the unexpected sound of his voice.  “It was like he wasn’t talking to - to me, exactly.  He was saying something about vengeful spirits, and ties to the grave.  One who feeds and needs release.  One who needs to chose - between the worlds.”  He shook his head.  “It doesn’t make any sense - “ 

 But - it did, Jack realised with a jolt.  It so did.  "Daniel!"  he called out urgently.  "What you were saying before - what he's trying to do - Daniel! Find out how he knows \- try talking to him - please!" 

Not listening, Daniel wasn't listening to him. Dammit! Oh my God, they were out of time.  The witch doctor dropped to one knee, grabbed Daniel by the hair and pulled him back until his torso was bent and splayed over his thigh. He raised the dagger high over his head and with a scream that would have peeled paint off walls plunged it down towards the center of Daniel's chest.  Straight toward Daniel’s heart. 

Happening so fast, it was all happening too fast.  He had to stop it - couldn't.  Nothing he could do to help him, nothing left for him to do but watch Daniel die.  Right before his eyes. 

Knife descending. No.  This wasn't happening, this couldn't be it, couldn't be the way it ended.  He wasn't watching this, wasn't seeing this, after everything they'd lived through, been through together, over?  It was all over? Finished?  That's all she wrote?  Couldn't be, it was too soon, he needed more time. He wasn't ready for this, wasn't ready for it to be over, there was so much he hadn't done yet, so much he hadn't said.  Daniel couldn't leave him yet, couldn't, he didn't know, he'd never told him. Not like this.  Please don't let him die like this.  Please, don't do this, don't - 

“DANIEL!” 

_ Heard me, he heard me, he's looking at me, so sorry I can’t stop it.  Failed you, Daniel, failed.  Sorry, so sorry for every way I failed you. _

Blue eyes, so deep, so full of affection, speaking to him so clearly. 

_ It’s okay, I know. You did everything you could. _

Jack drank in Daniel's eyes, taking everything he could of his final gift of forgiveness as long as that brave, dear light was allowed to shine. 

Time was standing still.  It had to be.  What other reason could there be for what he was seeing? 

Daniel, still bent backwards over the shaman’s knee, unmoving, unresisting, looking up at his executioner, the black blade frozen in abeyance, hovering just above his heart. 

_ He didn’t do it, he didn’t kill Daniel.  Thankgodthankgodthankgod… _

Relief washed over Jack, turning his legs to water.  If not for the bozos holding him up, he would have been a puddle on the ground. 

Boogie drew the knife back, then reached down and put it on the ground. He wasn't going to kill Daniel. He really wasn't.  Jack didn't fully believe it, even after he watched the witch doctor dispense with the knife, but now, the way he was looking at Daniel, there wasn't any doubt in his mind. 

Son of a bitch, Daniel was right.  The bastard wasn't going to hurt Daniel after all.  Had never intended to.  Wanted to scare the crap out of him, but not hurt him.  Jack felt an enormous weight lift off his soul as he realised even though he didn't understand why the guy felt he had to perform this service for Daniel, his intentions were good. Just like Daniel had told him they were. 

They were all going to walk away from this in one piece.  Jack was sure of it.  Not a question of if, but when. 

Jack watched as Boogie took Daniel’s face in his hands, gazing deeply at him as if he could see everything inside him.  Daniel wasn’t saying a word, but he was asking a question just the same.  Jack could read it across the space between them, and he didn’t like what he wasn’t hearing. 

_ Why didn’t you do it? _

The shaman sighed and sadly shook his head. He murmured a few soft phrases, almost as if pronouncing some kind of blessing upon Daniel, then leaned solemnly forward and kissed him gravely on the forehead. He placed a hand on the top of Daniel's head, stroked it once, set him back upright on his knees and then released him. As Daniel watched him mournfully he rose gracefully to his feet. 

Was it over?  Could they go?  Oh please, let it be over. 

Nope.  It wasn’t over yet.  If it was over, the bullyboys wouldn't still be feeling him up and he and Daniel would be going.  Which…wasn't happening.  He was still being held up and onto, and Daniel was still kneeling on the ground, looking as if he wasn't entirely happy with the fact he was still breathing. Well, that made ONE of them! He was downright over the moon Daniel was still breathing and what was more, he wanted to keep him that way.  Jack cast a hasty glance over in the direction of the Boogie Man.  Crap! Now what? 

Boogie was hunched over his mat, chanting away, putting a pinch of this and a dash of that into a gourd filled with a very dark, nasty looking liquid.  Refreshments? Oh, let's not and say we did! Would it be considered rude to refuse this latest version of island hospitality? If so, Jack planned to be very insulting. Oh boy, just look at that crud.  They'd probably be better off swilling swamp water.  Jack didn't know what was going into the rather alarming looking concoction, but whatever it was, he was guessing drinking it wouldn't be high up on his list of smart things to do and probably wouldn’t make Doctor Fraiser very happy either. 

Great.  If the potion didn't kill them then Janet would.  Ooh.  Some choice. 

Jack glanced anxiously back at Daniel.  He was slouched over again, head hanging, arms wrapped around himself.  He began to slowly rock and mumble to himself, soft, broken phrases tumbling rapidly out of him. 

"Sha'uri…saw her, saw, not just hearing things now, saw her.  Not going crazy, not - not like before, didn't - didn't, not real, it's not real she wasn't real  - " 

Sha'uri?  The woman they'd both seen who looked like Sha'uri? Holy Hallucinations, with all the subsequent excitement he'd completely forgotten about seeing her.  Is THAT what was eating Daniel?  Why he was being so - so - strange?  Being all freaked out and weird?  He thought because he'd seen Sha'uri back there, he was seeing things, losing it - he was going nuts?  Is that why he'd been acting like he WAS going nuts? 

"You're not seeing things, Daniel!" Jack called reassuringly to him.  "I saw her too, remember?" 

"You did?"  Daniel's head shot up, his eyes flaring with fierce suspicion.  "You did?"  His face hardened.  "You're just saying that.  You're lying.  Trying to trick me." 

The resentful, almost hateful look hurled at him hit Jack harder than then a runaway freight train.  Dark suspicion and even darker anger boiled in Daniel's eyes, cutting Jack to the core.  That Daniel could think Jack would - could do something like that to him, especially at a time like this - 

DAMMIT! What the HELL was going on? Every time he thought he was getting a handle on the weirdness, reality took a turn for the worst. He needed more time to sort all of this out, calm Daniel down, TALK to him and find out what the problem was. He wasn't going to get it; Boogie was done with the mixing and the singing.  On his way back to them; they were running out of time. 

Crap, crap, crap, he'd screwed up royally this time! The things Daniel had been saying, the tantalizing little clues he'd just dropped about what he'd been experiencing during the time he'd been pulling away from all of them added up to a frightening picture.  All these months he'd been assuming Daniel was withdrawn because he was grieving, and sure, there'd been some of that, a lot of what he'd gone through since her death had been grieving, but what if it wasn't that simple?  What if something else had been going on as well, all this time, something even more serious, more frightening?  Jack had just assumed he knew what the problem was and had done nothing strenuous to overcome Daniel's objections, had let him walk away and left him to it. Let Daniel get farther and farther away, leaving him alone to deal not with grief, but with fear. 

Okay, maybe he had screwed up, but there was nothing he could do about it now.  Beating himself up over what he had or hadn't done for Daniel wasn't going to get them out of this mess.  He had to find the rest of his team, get them away, get them home safe, all of them, then there'd be time, plenty of time, he'd be with Daniel all the way, they'd find out what was going on, they'd work through it.  Together. He had to get Daniel to safety, and then he could deal with this. 

"Jesus, Daniel, would you please just work with me here!"  Jack knew he was sounding absolutely desperate, which was pretty much the way he was feeling.  "Your pal is coming back here with the next phase of the 'treatment'.  You have to try and talk him out of this - I do NOT want you drinking any of that stuff - Daniel, are you reading me, buddy - we don't know what it is or what it could do to you - JE-SUS!" 

Jack recoiled, almost knocking the men holding him over as Daniel suddenly snarled and sprang at him like he was meaning to rip his throat out.  He didn't get very far; the men with the torches dropped them and grabbed Daniel as soon as he started moving, grimly restraining him while he raged and fought bitterly against the hands on him. 

Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing.  Daniel was struggling with almost insane ferocity, cursing, screaming, and spitting at the witch doctor as soon as he came within range.  Daniel's eyes were as feral and terrifying as his behaviour. They were scaring the hell out of Jack - Daniel was scaring the hell out of him. 

Daniel glowered balefully at him, desperate rage spewing from him.  "Stop him!"  he howled at Jack.  "You say you're my friend? Do something!  Help me!" 

This was too much.  He'd watched Daniel lay there and do nothing when he thought he was going to get his heart carved out and now when it looked like he was going to have to drink some kind of potion he was acting like a crazy man? Screaming for him to do something to stop it from happening?  What did Daniel think he could do to stop it now that he wouldn't have done to try and save him before?  Why was Daniel so afraid of some funky native cocktail when he hadn't even been fazed by the knife? 

And why was seeing Daniel acting like this making the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention?  Why did it seem what was glaring at him out of Daniel's eyes wasn't - Daniel? Why did Jack suddenly feel as if rather than running to help Daniel he wanted to book in the opposite direction instead? 

The witch doctor thundered a short, harsh phrase into the face of the man raging at him and Daniel's head snapped back as if he had been physically struck.  He immediately slumped, going alarmingly limp in the hands of the men holding him.  Jack watched horrified, his heart hammering with confusion and fear as the men loosened their grip and allowed Daniel to gently slide down until he was back on his knees again. 

Boogie hunkered down before Daniel, holding his potion cup in one hand while he gently grasped Daniel's chin and raised his head with the other.  Daniel looked at him with wide, deeply confused eyes.  The witch doctor started to speak to him in a soft voice.  Jack couldn't hear what he was saying and strained forward, listening fiercely before he caught himself.  No point in trying to hear what Boogie was saying, even if he could make it out he couldn't understand it anyway. 

But Daniel could.  Seems like he did. More to the point, the wild man was gone and he was Daniel again. He was definitely dazed and wavering, but he seemed 'normal'.  Not ranting, not cursing, not looking like some blood-lusting berserker just escaped from the freak show and looking for some throats to rip out with his teeth.  Daniel was fully focused on what Boogie was saying to him, nodding as if he was understanding every word and agreeing to something.  Boogie smiled, patted the top of his head and then handed him the cup. 

"Daniel \- don't!"  Jack cried out with alarm as he realised what was about to happen.  "Don't drink that stuff!  You don't know what it is - he could be poisoning you!" 

"It's okay, Jack," Daniel told him as he turned his head and smiled weakly at him.  "It will help me.  It will make the voices stop." 

_ VOICES? _

"Please don't leave me alone this time, Jack," Daniel's pleading voice nearly finished him as Jack watched him sigh, close his eyes and quickly drain the contents of the cup. 

Almost instantly, Daniel violently shuddered and pitched forward, coughing and sputtering.  His arms were shaking with the effort of bracing his body against the heaving, retching spasms wracking it.  Boogie stepped back from Daniel and clapped his hands.  Relief surged through Jack as the men holding him immediately let him go and backed off as well. 

_ Finally!  Dammit, Daniel why did you drink that crap? _

Jack didn't spare his former tormenters a glance as he leapt to Daniel's side.  They could all go to hell as far as he was concerned, all he wanted to do was get to Daniel and get him away from here as quickly as he could. 

"Danny!"  Jack said urgently as he fell to his knees beside Daniel. Who was still on all fours, coughing and retching. "Are you all right?"  A fresh bout of coughing was Daniel's only response. 

Deep fear gripped Jack as he wrapped his arms around Daniel's torso, supporting his friend's shaking body until the violent spasms ceased.  "Th - thanks, Jack," Daniel weakly panted, his head still hanging as he slumped shaking against the man holding him up.  "That was pretty stupid.  I- I'm sorry.  Don't know why - don't know what made me do that." 

"Don't worry about it," Jack returned gruffly, his voice rasping with mingling relief and concern.  He gave Daniel a reassuring squeeze.  "We'll sort it out later.  What do you say we leave the party early, huh, Daniel?  You feeling up to finding Carter and Teal'c and going home?" 

"Yeah," Daniel nodded his head vigorously.  "I'm - I'm up."  He clumsily lifted an arm and flopped it against Jack's chest, his hand groping towards Jack's shoulder for support.  "I think you're gonna - think you're gonna have - have to help - help me up, Jack?"  he pleaded in a slightly slurred voice. 

Daniel pushed down on Jack's shoulder, trying to heave himself up from all fours.  Before Jack could help him Daniel's supporting arm buckled and he lurched heavily against the man shoring him up. Jack had to quickly catch him and clasp him firmly to his chest to prevent both of them from tumbling over. 

Daniel lay trembling and panting in Jack's arms, half draped across him, his head resting heavily against Jack's shoulder, hands fluttering weakly against his back.  Jack tightened his grip, hugging him closer as Daniel's warm, erratic exhalations teased and flushed the hollow of his throat.  A surge of protectiveness, almost possessiveness blazed through him. Daniel seemed so - he felt so - the emotions raging through Jack were so fierce, so confusing, jumbled and swirling around inside him, but they'd never been stronger; he'd never been so AWARE of them, never as aware of the cause, of the man in his arms, as he was at this very moment. 

Alive, burning and wanting, wanting only to hold Daniel close like he was holding him now.  Hold him and hold him and never, ever let him go. 

"Whooooooo!"  Daniel hiccupped and started giggling into Jack's neck, the small, warm gusts of laughter coming faster against his skin. “Ohhh, that was nasty.  Very, very nasty," Daniel sighed heavily and thumped his head against Jack's shoulder.  "Yuck.  Nash-ty."  He finally raised his head and peered blearily at the man holding him.  "Don't feel so good, Jack," he announced in a faltering, confused voice. 

No kidding!  Daniel was green.  As in 'around the gills', definitely not his normal, glowing, golden complexion.  Unmistakable hint of an olive flush happening all over his face having nothing to do with the luck of the Irish.  What was just as scary, Daniel's pupils were so dilated they'd almost totally overcome the blue. 

That couldn't be good. 

“Ya don’t say," Jack tried to keep the panic out of his voice as he smiled back at the wavering, dazed but trusting grin.  Whatever this stuff was, it sure worked fast!  "You're not looking too shit-hot either, buddy.  Come on now, Dannyboy. Work with me here.  We’re gonna take a little walk and get you home.  How does that sound?” 

"Sounds good, Jack," Daniel bobbed his head in dreamy acquiescence.  "Are we standing up yet?" 

"Not yet," Jack replied as he reluctantly relaxed his firm, possessive hold on Daniel, grabbed him under the armpits and hauled him up to his feet.  The instant he was he was upright Daniel's knees folded and he would have dribbled happily back down to the ground again if Jack hadn't grabbed him quickly and tightly around the waist. 

"Sorry, Jack," Daniel mumbled sheepishly, giving him a shy grin as Jack put Daniel's arm around his shoulders and hitched him in closely to his side for better support.  "Almost fell down." 

"Don't worry about it, Danny," Jack patted the hand dangling close to his cheek as he took a careful, thorough look around.  No sign of Carter and Teal'c or their gear, but if he had to hazard a guess the other two members of his team were cooling their heels in one of those shacks. Along with all their stuff. The same shacks every damned soul on the island seemed to be standing in front of staring bug-eyed at the pair of them.  Not a blessed one of them making a sound or any menacing moves, but still creeping him out all the same. 

Jack took a deep breath.  Peachy.  This was just perfect, just what he'd had in mind for how he wanted to spend the day when he got out of bed this morning.  Here he was, trapped in paradise, surrounded by the Stepford Samoans, Carter and Teal’c nowhere in sight, an extremely pie-eyed archaeologist on his hands. And rather distractingly all over him.  Daniel was so looped he was almost liquefying in his arms. It seemed Dannyboy couldn’t hold his alien potions any more than he could hold his liquor.  Well, at least he could thank his lucky stars Daniel appeared to be a happy drunk.  Or – whatever. Jack just wished his blitzed burden wasn't so damned cuddly in the bargain.  Daniel's blissful acquiescence, warm, willing proximity and sudden propensity for - patting him affectionately - was making it very hard for Jack to concentrate on trying to figure out their next move. 

"Daniel, cut it out!" Jack grumbled lightly as he grabbed the hand playing with his ear and held it firmly so it couldn't. Crap.  Jack wished devoutly Daniel would quit DOING stuff like that.  Oh well, he shouldn't complain too much, at least Daniel wasn't - 

"For crying out loud, Daniel, quit blowing in my ear!" Jack roared. 

"But it's FUN, Jack!"  Daniel chortled. 

"We're not here to have fun," Jack explained slowly, already beginning to feel the strain of trying to be patient with Daniel while he was also trying to plan their next move.  "We have to figure out how to get home first." 

Daniel sighed and considered this for a moment.  "Then we can have fun?" he asked hopefully. 

"Sure, whatever," Jack answered him quickly, absently as he restlessly scanned the area all about him.  Looking for any signs of his missing teammates and their equipment, trying to gauge the mood of their 'audience'. 

"Promise?"  Daniel asked suspiciously. 

"I promise, I promise!"  Jack snapped, patting Daniel on the cheek to shut him up.  "Quiet now, Daniel, be a good boy.  Jack is trying to think, here." 

What to do? Jack was sure he'd find the rest of SG-1 in those huts, but did he dare try to run the gauntlet of the bug-eyed natives with Daniel in the shape he was in?  There was no way they could move fast if they had to.  And no way he was going to leave Daniel alone to make a solo assault on the shacks.  In his present, juiced condition who knows where Daniel would wander off to. Jack didn't have the faintest hope his willful and whacked-out archaeologist would stay where he'd try to stash him while he had a go at freeing Carter and Teal'c. 

So, taking the direct approach was out.  That left temporarily abandoning the rest of SG-1 and making a run for the gate.  Even though he'd told Carter and Teal'c to leave THEM behind and get to the gate if they got the chance, running out on them was the last thing he wanted to do.  'Nobody gets left behind' warred with the rising, almost primal need to protect Daniel and get him to safety as soon as possible.  Anywhere that wasn't here.  Getting back to the SGC was not an option without a GDO, but if he could get to the gate he could at least make sure Daniel was safe.  But that would mean \- Carter and Teal'c - 

Jack's eyes found the dark, distant ones of the witch doctor. During the time he'd been busy dealing with Daniel Boogie had relocated.  All the way over on the other side of the sandy expanse where the fun had been happening, standing at the head of the crowd of his people barricading the huts.  Jack stared hard at the tall, feathered man staring back at him.  Boogie was the key to what happened next. All the other villagers, they weren't the issue.  THIS was the guy he had to worry about; everyone else would do what HE said.  If there was any further grief in SG-1's future, it was all down to the Boogster. 

The two men studied each other across the gulf between them.  Jack tried to read the weathered face before him, still not knowing whether or not he could afford to trust the witch doctor.  Daniel did.  Daniel trusted him. That counted in the feathered man's favour.  Boogie could have killed Daniel - could have killed all of them.  But he hadn't. Still could, though.  But he'd already had the perfect chance and he hadn't.  Jesus. Hell of a choice, but what other option did he have? Jack shook his head, desperately hoping he wasn't making the biggest mistake of all their lives, and decided to take a chance. 


	2. Chapter 2

During the time Jack had been mulling things over Daniel appeared to have been happily doing a little 'mulling' of his own. An uncomfortably warm and tingling sensation in his chest rapidly spreading to more problematic areas of his body brought Jack rather jolting back to the realisation Daniel was quite thoroughly and intimately stroking his chest. If the soft, contented sounds he was making were any indication, Daniel was getting as much out of doing it as Jack was, being, er, done. Jack knew he had a problem on his hands. Well, a couple of problems. All having to do with the out-to-lunch and way too touchable bundle of trouble currently touching him in a way making him feel far too good. Jack couldn't decide what was more worrisome; the fact Daniel was definitely behaving in an - inappropriate - fashion, or that Jack, well, he LIKED it. A lot.

This REALLY wasn't the time for this!

"Daniel," he said a little gruffly, swallowing his grumbling libido and giving Daniel a little pat on the cheek to get his attention. Daniel's head came up slowly in response; his up-turned face was glowing with utter contentment as he gently swayed, stroked and completely failed to focus on the man trying desperately not to think about how amazingly radiant he looked and how much he liked where Daniel's hand was and what it was doing and oh my God, those eyes…

"Jack?" Daniel smiled dreamily.

"Hmmmm?" God, he was beautiful…

"Shouldn't we be - shouldn't we be doing something?"

"What? Oh crap!" Jack shook his head angrily. What the hell was the matter with him? What was he thinking, going off like a goon like that, mooning over Daniel - DANIEL, for crying out loud, like some love-struck, randy adolescent? Where were his brains?

Daniel was peering at him expectantly, intently, as much someone in his condition could form any sort of intent as all. "We've got to find Carter and Teal'c," Jack said to him slowly.

"CarterandTeal'c," Daniel parroted, nodding seriously, still trying to focus furiously even though his head was starting to waver a little. "Okey doke!"

So far so good. Some brain cells still on line inside that gorgeous, addled head. Making progress here.

"We're going to have to walk all the way over there and talk to your pal, there. See if he will tell us where they are and let them go. You're going to have to do most of the talking, though. Think you can do that for me, Danny?" Jack asked hopefully. "Walk over there and talk to witchie poo with me?"

"Daniel smiled blazingly at him. "For you, Jack?" he enthused heroically. "Yasureyoubetcha!"

"God help me," Jack groaned under his breath as he started them walking toward the Boogie Man.

Daniel took a couple of extremely uncertain steps, then fell heavily against Jack as his legs buckled. He started to giggle as if his incapacity was just the funniest thing in the world.

“Ooops! I don’t think so. Legs don’t want to go. Howcum?”

“You’re shit-faced, Daniel.”

“Oh. Whadarewegonnadonow?”

“Okay Daniel,” Jack sighed. “Up you go. Let’s try it again. I’ll carry you if I have to, but you’re a big boy and I’d just as soon not.”

That comment started Daniel giggling and patting again, but to give the kid his due, he was also really trying to get his legs to cooperate. After a few false starts and a lot more giggling Daniel finally seemed to be getting the hang of walking again. They set out across the sand, moving not so much forward as away from where they had been, maybe not gracefully or efficiently, but at least they were moving. They slowly stumbled, reeled and staggered like a pair of tipsy tee-totalers, hips bumping and clashing against each other, Daniel's laughter dancing in the air as they lurched along the silent line of villagers standing impassively, watching their every move. With disturbing focus and interest. Staring. Dozens of pairs of big, black bug eyes, staring at them. Jack scowled at them. Take a damned picture, it lasts longer!

Of all the eyes boring into them none pricked at Jack as much as the dark, piercing ones belonging to the Boogie Man. It wasn't that they were menacing or dangerous: nothing like that. Jack no longer feared the man in the sense he was afraid any of them were going to come to harm. If that was the case he'd hardly be trying to steer Danny over to him in order to have a little pow wow.

The Boogster was bothering Jack because he was looking at him like he could see right through him. Jack was being checked out, looked up and down, sized up - judged - every inch of the way on over. And he wasn't the only one getting the visual once over. Boogie was checking Daniel out as well. But with Daniel it was different. Daniel he was watching, waiting for something to happen. Him - it was as if Boogie was expecting him to DO something.

Boogie was after something from both of them. Something different, but still something. But just what - Jack hadn't a clue.

Jack found it less unsettling to look at the witch doctor than he did the silent sea of broad, expressionless faces they were weaving past. With everything happening so fast before Jack hadn't had a chance to register the witch doctor as anything more than a conflicting impression of noise, sharp movement and menace. As well as a lot of feathers, beads and paint.

Now, everything was calm and with Boogie merely standing there quietly looking at them, he didn't strike Jack as being nearly as intimidating. Imposing, yes, maybe regal, even, but not intimidating. He was still full-out native, the guy in charge and the most decked-out dude of the bunch, but Jack could tell just by looking at him the way he'd been acting wasn't the way he was. All the yelling and bad-ass, strong-arm stuff had been about getting a job done. It wasn't the way Boogie normally did business. This man was definitely not the bully he had been pretending to be.

Old and wise was the first thing that came to Jack's mind as he took in the impressive, solid figure towering over everyone else. The witch doctor was at least a head taller than the rest of the crowd, also not built along the short, more compact lines of most of the other folks. He was tall, taut and lean, as opposed to short, stocky and more across than up. He also looked a lot older than most of them, his craggy, serene face speaking of an 'age' earned not simply from being here the longest, but from what he'd done during the time he'd been breathing. This guy had been around some, and he'd made good use of his time.

Boogie was also a man who understood sometimes you had to do what you had to do. The end justified the means if the end was important enough. The wise, dark eyes locked sorrowfully with his and suddenly Jack felt a renewed taste of fear in his mouth. Boogie hadn't done any of this on a whim. Nor had he meant to be arbitrary or deliberately cruel to any of them. He believed what he'd had to do to Danny was for a very good reason. What was more, it wasn't over yet. It was far from over, far from decided, and the guy was still worried. Worried about Danny. Worried for both of them, but mostly for Danny.

Oh joy. That made two of them.

It seemed to be taking an eternity to negotiate the distance between where they were and where they were still trying to get to. It wasn't helping they weren't exactly travelling in a straight line. More like taking the scenic route. Daniel was giggling and stumbling into him again, sending them gracefully listing off to port this time. Jack sighed and nudged Daniel with his hip to steer them back on course. Being with Daniel like this, having him so close was - well it was nice, in a weird sort of way. He was even getting used to the touches, although he was trying very hard not to listen to some of the things Daniel was murmuring. Not anything he wanted to hear. Not if he had any hope of putting things back into their proper - perspective - once this was all over and Daniel sobered up again.

Don't think about that right now, let's just get there and get the job done!

Jack was just starting to feel as if they finally were settling into a rhythm when Daniel abruptly twisted around in his arms and grabbed a fistful of Jack's shirt. Jack stumbled with surprise as Daniel yanked them nearly nose to nose. Daniel's face was excited but serious and so close to his their lips were almost touching. Jack froze, alarmed by his disturbing proximity and the warm feeling of Daniel's moist breath gusting rapidly across his lips.

“Jack!” Daniel exclaimed dramatically. "I have to tell you something. It's really important! You gotta LISTEN to me!"

All Jack knew he was he had to get Daniel away from him. Fast. He grabbed the hand entangled in his shirt, tried to pry it lose. "Daniel, let go of me!" he grated.

"Jack, please!" Daniel insisted, not letting go and not backing off.

"Daniel," Jack warned. He'd pretty much had it. With Daniel, with sand, with sunshine, with frigging ocean breezes, but mostly with Daniel. This was taking too long; Daniel was still standing way too close and Boogie's disconcerting looks were starting to make him feel jumpy and apprehensive again. Jack just wanted to get to the feathered one and get him to give up Carter and Teal'c so they could all go home. And Daniel was being difficult and holding the whole lot of them up with this latest dumb-ass observation floating through his fogged up head he just HAD to share this minute or he'd die. What was it this time? His nose was cute? Yippee! Call the media, they could share it with the world! Why couldn't Daniel just shut up and BEHAVE! For once! He knew it wasn’t Daniel’s fault, he was looped out of his skull, after all, but with all the giggling and stumbling and squirming and snuggling and now Daniel was standing so close, close enough to -

“Not NOW, Daniel!" Jack snapped, finally managing to get Daniel's hand free and swinging him back around so he was hanging off his hip again. Instead of hanging off his neck. "Move it, Daniel. We're going over there, remember? Off to see the wizard? Carter and Teal'c?"

“Jack, this is SERIOUS!” Daniel persisted. "I have to tell you this - NOW! You gotta listen!"

That was it. That was when he'd blown it, but good. Daniel wasn't in a mood to be messed with; he'd had his back up and then some. It was there, the warning sign, plain in his voice; Jack would have heard it. That is, if he'd been listening. He should have been listening, should have paid attention. It would have saved both of them a lot of grief, seeing what happened later as a result of one little lapse.

But that was pretty much par for the course where he and Daniel were concerned. This time wasn't any different from any of the other times he should have listened to Daniel, should have paid a little attention, and hadn't. It was turning out just as badly as all the other times as well. You'd think he'd have learned his lesson by now.

Fat chance, fathead.

He'd been doing this to Daniel for as long as they'd known each other. Blowing him off, shutting him down, patting him on the head. Ignorant and condescending, Daniel had said that him once. How to call it, Dannyboy. He should have listened. He never listened. Never listened to Daniel, never paid attention to him, never took him seriously, never gave him his due. He was always underestimating Daniel. It usually ended up the same way. Lots of hurt feelings, misunderstanding and plenty of regret with the benefit of hindsight. A mountain of regret.

“Jack, please! You don't understand!” Daniel persisted, pleading, a deeply pained look on his face. Which Jack didn't see because he was too busy being annoyed with him for holding them up.

It wasn’t Daniel’s fault. He shouldn’t have snapped at him. Really shouldn’t have. Always leading with his mouth. Always saying the wrong thing. Always pushing him away.

“Get off my back, Daniel! We haven't got time for this crap! Now, can it and WALK!”

Daniel huffed with affronted ferocity, planted his feet and straightened up with such unexpected swiftness he broke free of Jack’s grasp. Before Jack had time to react Daniel shoved him away with so much force he was thrust staggering backward for several stumbling steps.

Jack could only gape at him, completely stunned as Daniel took a deep breath, puffed out his chest and announced with all the pomposity of the truly pissed: “You are such a POOP! Bossy, big-mouthed POOP! Sick of you treating me like I'm a little kid! I don’t wanna TALK to you no more! Those people look nice. They're not poops! They'll listen. They won't be mean to me. Not like you! Poop! Going over there. Talk to them. Go – play with - play in traffic.”

Making an expansive, dismissing gesture with his hand, Daniel executed a shaky turn and started to weave away. Jack actually let him get several feet away before he recovered enough from the shock to try and regain control of the situation.

“Daniel, I’m sorry. Don’t be like that. Come on back here.”

Daniel kept on walking back the way they had come, waving Jack away over his shoulder, his back still firmly set against him. “No.”

“I said I was sorry.”

Daniel stopped walking as if considering what the man behind him had just said. “I heard you," he finally said, quietly. " I don’t believe you. You always say that. It doesn’t mean anything. You never mean it. You never listen. I don't know why I thought you would this time. Stupid, I guess. That's me. Stupid. Stupid because I - never, never mind. You don't care. I know that now.”

A quotation flashed through Jack’s mind. ‘In vino, veritas.’ Hell, he even knew what it meant. Jack wasn't sure where he had picked it up, but there it was. And there was Daniel, still standing there, not going forward, not going back, not turning around, wavering dizzily, but still there. Waiting. What? What was he waiting for?

Jack looked over to Boogie, not sure why he suddenly thought the guy could or would, but hoping he would throw him some sort of clue. The dark, old eyes were saying something, but Jack didn't know what he was seeing.

Didn't know - or didn't want to know? Daniel was waiting. Boogie was waiting. Waiting for something from him? What? What was he supposed to do, what was he supposed to say? Daniel was right? So, what if he was, what if his good friend Jack had been acting like a horse's ass, this wasn't anything they were going to be able to settle now. Especially given the state Daniel was in at the moment. Jack made a flamboyant gesture of annoyance at Daniel’s sullen back. They just didn’t have TIME for this right now. Honest to God, sometimes Daniel could be as frustrating as… Oh my, O’Neill, don’t go there.

Sunstroke. It definitely had to be sunstroke. Screw it! This wasn't the time or the place for any of this touch-feely emotional crap. Maybe he had hurt Daniel's feelings, but he'd sort it out with him later. Presuming Daniel even remembered any of this once he sobered up - or came down - from whatever he was presently floating around on. A process they could hopefully expedite if Daniel would just cooperate so they could get him home and into Doc Fraiser's tender medical clutches. Jack didn't want to be fighting with a pissy, pissed Daniel. He could march over there and force Daniel to come with him, but better, easier if he could persuade him to play nice.

Appeal to his better nature. Trick him. One thing Jack knew for sure, if Daniel wouldn’t come quietly on his account, he’d come back for the sake of someone else. Two someone elses – to be precise.

“Listen, Daniel," Jack called to him, "stay mad at me if you want to, but don’t you think we should try and find out what's happened to Carter and Teal’c? I could really use your help to find them. What do you say?”

The shoulders of the man behind him rapidly rose and fell in a visible shrug. “Okay,” he said in an agreeable voice as he turned around and began to stumble back toward Jack.

Jack smugly watched him approach, trying very hard not to be too pleased with himself. Yup, it really was that easy. Who said he didn’t know his archaeologist?

Daniel continued to waft towards him, a slightly wavering, open smile upon his face. Daniel was almost to his side before Jack saw his eyes. It was just sinking in there was something very, very wrong with them when the punch came of nowhere, taking him completely by surprise.

The swift, deadly right cross caught him just under the chin, lifting him off his feet with its violent power. Jack felt his brains fly out simultaneously in assorted different directions as his body hurtled to the ground. Ow!

He was lying flat on his back with his head scattered in several large pieces all around him. What the hell – who knew Daniel could throw a punch like that? Jack didn’t know whether to be proud of him or scared shitless.

Then Jack opened his eyes and saw the cruel contempt on the face of the man standing over him and decided definitely in favour of the latter. Jack blinked, trying to clear his head, convinced the shock of the blow was making him see things, and looked again.

“Sucker,” Daniel laughed down at him in a way making Jack's blood curdle with sudden, irrational fear.

SOMETHING sneered at him through Daniel’s eyes. That scary, creepy something he'd seen before when Daniel had come at him like a wild beast. He wasn't imagining it. Not then, not now.

“How stupid do you think I am?” it laughed at him contemptuously.

Oh crap. This DEFINITELY wasn't good.

Flat on his back on the sand and half stunned from the punch Jack was no more in the frame than he had been from the first moment he'd set foot on this god-forsaken paradise, but one thing he did know for sure, even though he was looking at Daniel standing there and laughing at him, what was sneering and leering at him and using Daniel to do it - wasn't Daniel. It wasn't Daniel who'd clocked him, wasn't Daniel saying those things and no way those eyes - God - those EYES - the glacial hatred in them freezing his blood in his veins - not Daniel's eyes. Moe, Larry and Curly, what the hell was he looking at? More to the point, what the hell was looking back at HIM, making a suddenly menacing, utterly terrifying stranger out of the one person Jack thought he knew and trusted more than any other.

"Fool," the thing with Daniel's face scoffed at him, and then shuddered. Daniel wavered dangerously, for an appalling instant Jack though he was going to crumple to the ground, and then Daniel shook his head and stopped shaking and, oh yeah, there he was, Daniel, his Daniel again, looking down at him, his huge, blue eyes soft with delighted confusion. From the way he was starting to giggle, what he was seeing had to be pretty funny.

“Whatcha doing down there, Jack?” Daniel asked with honest curiosity. He squinted a Jack for a moment, then looked around, gnawing on his lower lip, his expression worried and distraught. "Oh, oh boy," he murmured. " I was over there and now I'm here. How'd I get over here? It's happening again. Oh boy." Daniel aimed his distressed gaze back down at the man still sprawled at his feet. "What's going on. Jack?" he implored, his desperate need for an explanation tearing at Jack as much as his inability provide Daniel with one.

"That's a damned good question, Daniel," Jack tried to reassure him. "And as soon as I have an answer, you'll be the first to know."

Saying he had a huge problem on his hands was like saying the sky was blue. So stating the obvious. So why waste time even talking about it? Or trying to pretend it wasn't so? Face facts. Whatever was going on - for whatever reason he'd done it - Daniel - or whatever - had just taken a swing at him. A damned good one too. This was the second time Daniel had gone bonzo and tried to come at him. The only reason Daniel hadn't ripped his heart out the first time was because the guys holding onto him hadn't let him.

There was nobody stopping Daniel from taking another crack at him if psycho boy decided to go unexpectedly darkside on him again. Jack had more than enough to worry about already without getting taken out by someone he was trying to protect.

So, as much as he hated to admit it, in the here and now, Daniel was dangerous. Which meant before either one of them could take another step Jack was going to have to take drastic steps to secure the situation. Or more to the point, secure Daniel. Hell of a thing to contemplate hog-tying your best friend, but even more inconvenient to have him trying to kill you while you were trying to help him.

But he had to get his hands on Daniel first.

He held out a hand to the man who stood over him. “Hey Daniel, be a pal. Help me up, will ya?”

Daniel considered this for a moment before smiling.

“Oh, I don't think so, Jack," he grinned craftily at the man lying supine on the ground before him silently, fervently cursing him and every infuriating, intractable, uncooperative cell in his body. "I know what you're doing. You can't fool me!" he sing-songed, waggling an admonishing finger at Jack. "Naughty, naughty! You're trying to trick me. I know you! It's not going to be that easy, Colonel. You’ll have to catch me first! Bye!” Daniel giggled, whirled and sprinted across the sand. Making a beeline for the jungle. The thick, dark, wild, untamed, hot, sweltering, probably-full-of-all-sorts-of-things-dying-to-eat-both-of-them-and-him-without-a-gun jungle. THAT jungle!

Oh fucking CRAP!

Jack surged to his feet, swearing a blue streak and nursing his aching head. Shit, look at that, will you, scarfing down the witch doctor's sludge had apparently made Daniel incapable of walking a straight line but it didn't seem to be at all impacting on his ability to run like stink. Daniel wasn't having any trouble making tracks. No weaving or stumbling now, he was sprinting flat out, streaking across the sand like a freaking gazelle, and by the time Jack stumbled to his own feet 'runs like the wind' boy had already disappeared into the fringes of the jungle behind the outer edge of the village. Crap.

Jack was going to have to go in there after him. But not by himself, that was for damned sure. No FRICKING way! The shape he was in? Might as well just put a gun to his head. Carter and Teal’c and the GDOs had to be in one of those huts so he would just carry on with the original plan, try and get through to Boogie, get him to give up the rest of his team, and then they'd all go after Daniel. Send through for a couple more teams, they'd have the jungle combed and the doped-up delinquent extracted in no time flat. Sounded like a plan.

Jack turned back, took one look at the witchdoctor's face and knew there was no point in taking another step. Why, oh why had he bothered to get out of bed this morning?

Boogie pointed his rattle at the huts and shook his head. Well, that was plain enough. He shook it again, first at Jack and then at the jungle Daniel had disappeared into. Even plainer. So much for the language barrier. Boogie meant for him to go after 'pain in the ass' boy all by himself. And nobody was going anywhere until he brought him back. God, but he loved these no-win situations. "Thanks for nothing, 'pal'!" he scowled at the witch doctor. "I hope all your freaking feathers fall off! Have a nice day!"

Jack flipped Boogie the bird and ran into the jungle after Daniel.

 

Jack stomped through the claustrophobic greenery, inwardly as torrid and seething as the steaming, humid air he was battling. He grumbled and cursed silently as he followed the clearly delineated trail Daniel had blazed through the vegetation during his hasty, unheeding transit. Obviously Daniel wasn't taking any great pains to hide his tracks. Good. All the easier to find to find the dear boy and get the hell out of this frigging green nightmare. Like yesterday. Good thing Daniel wasn’t thinking clearly enough to be more careful. Mind you, if Daniel was thinking clearly, they wouldn’t have to be doing this in the first place.

The pain behind his eyes had receded to a dull thud. The swelling on his jaw was going to take a little longer. Jack continued to thread his way through the tropical profusion, realizing once he caught up with Daniel he'd best be prepared for anything. Finding Daniel might be the easy part. Holding onto him after he found him, that could be something else entirely.

Holding onto Daniel. Nice. It had been really, really nice. Holding him, so close, feeling him, so warm and happy, Daniel smiling at him, looking at him with such trust, such…

Then there was the other way Daniel had looked at him. Lunging at him, punching him, staring down at him with that weird, hateful look in his eyes. No - not Daniel. It looked like Daniel, but it wasn't Daniel. Daniel hadn't done any of those things to him. Not Daniel.

Jack didn’t know exactly what was in Daniel, but one thing he did know for sure, it wasn’t a Goa’uld. There had been no glowing eyes or funny voice, and although he wasn't ‘Goa’uld sensitive’ like Carter, Jack still knew Daniel's problem wasn't snake-related. Couldn't be. Even though he couldn't smell the damned things, Carter and Teal'c could, and they'd both been close enough to Daniel today to have sensed - they would have picked up on it. Whatever he'd seen in him, whatever the Boogie Man had been trying to 'cleanse' Daniel of, it wasn't a Goa'uld.

Danny hadn’t picked up a snake in his travels, but there definitely was a little something ‘extra’ to his personality all the same. Defining exactly what that something was, that was the scary part. Of course, the simplest explanation for Daniel's aberrant behaviour was the obvious psychological one. He could be just plain nuts. You could make a case for it. A very plausible one. Much more plausible than - well, the other explanation he was trying very hard not to think about.

Daniel had to be carrying a shit-load of deeply hidden and buried hurts and resentments against a certain colonel in his subconscious. They'd had three years to accumulate, fester and simmer. Something in the potion Daniel had been forced to drink had turned up the heat and the whole sordid mess had come to a boil, all over the object of his ire. Now here it all was, every bad thing he'd ever made Daniel feel, out in the open and itching to kick his Air Force ass into the middle of the next century. As an explanation for Daniel's Mr. Hyde routine, it could fly.

He was sure that's the way Carter would call it. Probably all the head doctors as well. Jack knew it was the most logical and acceptable explanation, most probably the ‘right’ one. However, it didn’t quite do it as far as he was concerned, and certainly didn't explain everything he had personally observed. It didn't allow for the Boogie Man's reaction to Daniel, for what he'd done to him and why, and it certainly didn't explain the strange, palpable feeling of ‘presence’ Jack had so jarringly experienced during those moments when Daniel hadn't been - Daniel. It couldn't account for the very, very real sense of malevolence oozing out of him. Hatred so tangible and consuming he'd been repelled and horrified almost to the point of wanting to flee. During those moments when 'it' had looked at him he'd felt primal, instinctive terror, the kind that turned your bones to water, worse than your worst childhood fears of the things lurking in the darkness. He'd felt it, and he'd also sensed something else, something weighing so heavily on the scales of the improbable it was tipping them well and truly over to that which shouldn't be, but couldn't be anything else. What had been all around Daniel, covering him like some noxious cloud, the FEELING of - of -

Gowan, Jack – say it.

Evil.

Whatever had looked at him through Daniel’s eyes, it was Evil. With a capital 'E'. One thing Jack knew with as much certainty as he knew the sun was going to rise in the morning, however pissed off he had ever made Daniel or would ever make him for the next thousand years, no way in hell he would ever, EVER believe Daniel’s darkest thought or desire would even come close to being that. Not possible. Ever.

Jack didn’t believe in hocus pocus, oogie boogie shit. Things that went 'bump' in the night was what happened when you fell out of bed. All that supernatural crap was for suckers. That was how he felt about it, until now, that is. Now he was seriously having to revise his views about what could and couldn't be possible. If he was unwilling to accept the rational explanations for what was happening to Daniel, he had no other choice but to go with the only other possible explanation. Daniel didn't have a Goa'uld, he wasn't homicidal, he was - possessed.

Oooh yeah, that just made him feel SO much better!

‘Something’ was in his friend. Something evil. Something the Boogie Man had picked up on and had tried to get out of Daniel with the rattles and the smoke and the screaming and all that other crap. Tried and failed. That Something was STILL in Daniel, and now the pair of them were out there, loose, somewhere ahead of him. And lest he forget, this Something apparently didn’t care for him any more than he was overly fond of it. Not a particularly comforting thought.

Jack’s radar tapped him on the shoulder. He stopped abruptly as he realized what it was telling him.

The jungle noises had stopped. It was quiet. Too quiet. Oh my, this wasn’t good.

Jack barely had time to complete the thought when a body came hurtling at him from out of the thick undergrowth behind him. Damn! Daniel had circled – behind him? How in the hell had he managed to do that?

Daniel’s shoulder slammed into the middle of his back, thrusting him violently forward. Right into a tree. Face met bark in such a manner as to make Jack rather the loser for the encounter and once again, Jack found himself becoming distressingly disconnected from his gray matter. Daniel kept charging, mashing him into the tree, dashing the wind from him and making his ribs shriek alarmingly under the strain. Daniel leapt away from him and Jack dropped like a stone, crashing to the ground where he lay dazed and dumbly gasping, mad sparks flashing in his head, his chest a searing mass of pain as it heaved futilely and wildly for air.

He was down, he was out, a beached whale had a better chance right now than he did. He was going to have to give the kid points for this one. If he lived. Either he was slipping or Daniel was improving. Whichever it was, the first round definitely went to Dannyboy. That is, Jack was hoping it was Daniel who'd gotten the drop on him, and had subsequently dropped him. 'Cause if it wasn't he wasn't in much of a position to stop - whatever - from finishing the job.

The sound of giggling came down to meet Jack as he slowly drifted back up from the twilight edges of unconsciousness. This had not helped his headache one damned bit. He warily opened his eyes. A blurred figure was swimming around right beside him. He couldn't really make out the face yet, but he certainly knew the laugh. What's more, the little shit was standing within grabbing range. Good.

Jack shot out a hand and tried to snag his quarry. His hand closed on empty air as Daniel nimbly evaded his clumsy attempt.

“Oh, you’re going to have to do better than that, Jack,” Daniel taunted him, snickering.

That laugh was really starting to get to him.

“That’s one for me!" Daniel crowed. "Catch me if you can, Colonel. Wheeee! This is FUN!”

Jack rolled over, turning the air more than slightly blue in his frustration as he made another frantic but futile grab at Daniel. “Danny – WAIT!” he bellowed after him.

Too late, Daniel had slipped through his fingers once more and was already on the move again, making like a giggling gazelle through the green.

“Come on, Jack. Let’s play!” he laughed back at the swearing man struggling to get up.

“Sure, Danny!” Jack yelled after him. “Got a deck of CARDS?” Groaning, he hauled his aching bones the rest of the way to his feet and doggedly trudged deeper into the jungle.

That had been two hours ago. Two lousy, stinking hours of slogging through this lousy, stinking jungle. Sweltering along in a sauna bath, sweating his ass off as he pushed his way past more green stuff than he ever wanted to see for the rest of his life, steadily developing an irrational hatred of rain forests and every thing in them approaching epic proportions. Struggling over terrain becoming increasingly steep and treacherous, being a walking smorgasbord for an astonishing variety of flying, biting, stinging insects and generally just not having a good time at all. And now here he was, two hours after Daniel had first clocked him, standing at the base of this damned thousand-feet-tall-if-it-was-an-inch tree, trying to catch a glimpse of the man who'd managed, more than once, to make a monkey of this rather abused and abashed Special Ops colonel.

Jack hated fucking trees. He hated the fucking jungle. But most of all he hated getting his ass kicked. Repeatedly. Boy oh boy, had he been whumped.

Daniel had jumped him and thumped him twice, and had followed this up by becoming one with the jungle and thumping him some more. In his new persona of Nature Boy he'd swung by him on a vine, shirtless and yodeling and had almost kicked his head in. And that was just for starters.

Not content with achieving aerial superiority, Daniel had launched an impressive and very effective ground assault. Daniel had pushed him down a ravine, tumbled him into a stream and whipped a rock at him, catching him above the right eye so bad it was still bleeding. All the time giggling and dancing around him like Danny was freaking invincible.

The kid had some moves, and he was driving Jack absolutely insane. He couldn't seem to lay a finger on Daniel, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Jack wasn't sure if it was because Daniel had suddenly become much more physically confident and capable than he'd ever seen him - and he didn't even want to THINK about why that was - or if it was because Nature Boy's current whipping boy was slowing down from having been so effectively, repeatedly TROUNCED, but whatever the reason, Daniel was dancing rings around him. Laughing all the way.

The fact Daniel was continuing to get the better of him, it had NOTHING to do with him being distracted. By the memories of seeing that lithe, sleekly muscled, sweat-gleaming body flying at him, making disturbing thoughts flash through his aching head. Followed by more thoughts, and even more disturbing images…desires… thoughts about wanting to see even more of that body, shiny and sweating, wanting to slide his fingers over the glistening skin, touching it, smelling it, wondering what it would feel like to have Daniel panting and wild eyed beneath him, imagining what sort of sounds would he make, what would he taste like, thinking how much he would like to run his tongue across that wide, firm chest…

Wow! Jack shook his head to banish such terrifying, exciting notions. He had to stop his mind from going where it kept wanting to go. Not only was this not the place or the time, it just wasn't supposed to go there. Ever. Daniel had a certain place in his life, his own, nice comfortable little mental niche, just like everyone else who was important to him, and that's where Dannyboy was staying. Safe in the best friend box where he belonged. All the other stuff he'd been thinking and feeling about Daniel since this whole nightmare had started, it was stress and worry. Getting his brains rattled one too many times. That's all it was. That's all he was going to let be. Period.

All this crap stopped here and it stopped now! He wasn't himself at the moment, plain and simple. Small wonder, his head was three sizes bigger than normal, he'd been thoroughly used and abused, he was angry, hurt, tired, sweaty, itchy in places he didn’t even know he had, hungry, thirsty and all in all, one really cranky colonel. Add confused and more than slightly horny - okay, REALLY horny - to the mix and you're talking a full day of thrills and adventure. More than enough for Mother O'Neill's baby boy. He’d had his fill of fun and games for one afternoon. Not to mention giggling. Please, God, no more giggling! And if Daniel made him climb this fricking tree to get him the hell out of it…

“Wooo hooo – Jaaaackkk! Are you down there? Look at me!”

Speak of the devil. Smile Jack. Be nice. Make him come down. Then kill him.

“Ah, Daniel?” Jack ventured in what he hoped was a friendly. persuasive tone. “I’ve been having a lot of fun, but it’s getting late. Can we go home now? Please?”

A mocking burst of laughter answered him. “Jack, you are such a LIAR. I come down there, you’re gonna wring my neck! God, you’re funny!” Daniel chortled.

“Yeah, well so are you!” Jack howled back up at him, the remaining shreds of his control abruptly snapping. “Daniel, cut the crap already. Don't make me come up there! I mean it! Enough is enough. already. This is NOT funny anymore! I’m hurt and you’re – you're crazy. Get your ass down here RIGHT NOW!”

Silence.

Crap! Way to go, DICKHEAD! There goes your 'Mister Sensitive of the Year' award! Even though the guy has been making you crazy it's not his fault. He's still looped and/or ah, inhabited, and you've just gone and yelled at him and probably scared the shit out of him. Like he's gonna come down if he thinks you're waiting here to thump him as soon as his feet hit the ground.

Still nothing happening up there. No sounds, no movement. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Jack moved in closer to the tree, anxiously peering up the length of the massive trunk, trying to catch a glimpse of Daniel through the concealing foliage high overhead.

"Daniel?" Jack called up to him in a much kinder voice. Genuinely contrite. "Danny? Listen, buddy, I'm - I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm having a bad day. Come on down, now, Daniel, I'm not mad at you. I promise I won't give you a hard time. Daniel?"

“Fire in the hole!” Daniel shrieked.

Too late Jack realized he'd been suckered. Again. Something small and round, probably a nut but feeling like a cannon ball hitting him right between the eyes. Somewhere on the periphery of his awareness he heard Daniel whoop exultantly and yell.

“Yes! The Revenge of Plant Boy!”

That was when the lights finally went – out.

 

 

Cool breeze across his face. Nice. It felt really nice. Just what he needed, something nice and cool. Nice after all that frigging heat. The breeze smelled great, too. Like the ocean. Wow, he couldn't just smell it, he could hear it, the sound of waves crashing, roaring. The sounds were faint, distant, but he could hear them. Ocean sounds. By the sea…sweet. He could use a nice seaside vacation right about now. Hold the frigging sand, though.

Wait a minute, that wasn't quite right, was it? Hadn't he been - wasn't he - he'd been standing under this really big tree and then…Ow! Crap! What the hell was that, sticking into his back? It hurt like a bitch. What was he lying on - rocks? Rocks? Ocean?

Jack sat up with a start, felt a stab of pain in his skull shooting through him right down to his toes, groaned and fell back again. Ow - Ow - OW!

Son of a bitch, was there a single spot on his body that didn’t hurt? He was a giant mass of pain. What a day. Join the Stargate Program, they said, see the universe, they said, get the crap beat out of you, all part of the job description. When he got home he was going to have to give some serious thought to considering a less dangerous line of work. Like landmine locator. Or TV talk show host. He was definitely getting too old for this crap.

Jack winced and groaned again. The sound of his own breathing was making his head throb. He didn’t even want to think how much it would hurt if he tried to open his eyes.

“Bet your head really hurts. Sorry about that.”

Daniel’s voice! Daniel! Off to his right, about twenty feet away. God, where was his head at, so busy moaning about a few minor bumps and bruises when he should have been thinking about Daniel. Daniel was okay, but he still sounded a bit spaced, though. But that was okay, high or stone cold sober, at least he was here. Daniel was here, he was close at hand, he was here. Wherever 'here' was. He'd get to that in just a minute, as soon as he could open his eyes without having his head explode. What mattered was they were both here. They were together. Thank God

Jack lay still, breathing deeply, trying to get his head to stop spinning, his senses straining and alert for the slightest sound of movement from the man with him indicating Daniel was about to up and scamper off again. So far so good. Jack knew approximately where Daniel was, but he was still no closer to getting his hands on him then he'd been since the merry chase had started. And he had to get his hands on Daniel. Had to get him under control. Although Daniel evidently hadn't abandoned him while he'd been out, it was no guarantee he still wouldn't up and bolt in the next second. Start the whole, damn 'Whee, Jack let's play' deal up again. Not going to happen. There was just no way Jack was going to allow himself to get suckered into chasing the wing nut over one more square foot of this stupid, stinking island. He’d lie here till doomsday first.

Jack knew he was in no shape to either chase Daniel any more or deal with any Mr. Hyde stuff. Right now it was looking like he wouldn't have to. Daniel was being nice and quiet, sitting where he was, kinda - humming - or something, from the sounds of things, but that didn't mean either one of them were out of the woods yet for all it seemed they were no longer in the jungle.

His head was actually starting to feel a little better, but no reason to let Daniel know that. In fact, it was probably smarter to let Daniel think he was feeling pretty darned terrible. Yeah, play possum and pull Dannyboy into grabbing range that way. Shamelessly appeal to his better nature. Being he was Daniel, even though he was still doped up and whatevered, Jack was banking he still had one. Not only counting on it, he was planning to use it to turn the tables on Nature Boy. This colonel had been played for a sucker long enough. Daniel's turn.

Yep. That sounded like a plan.

Jack let out an experimental groan and lay perfectly still, confident his vocalized distress would be all it would take to bring Danny running. Make Daniel come to him. And he would. Daniel's kind heart was both his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. Jack intended to take full advantage of it.

He lay still and waited. Waited. Waited some more.

Nothing.

Come on, Daniel; take the damned bait, already. Ah geez, there he goes with the damned laughing again!

“Jack, Jack, Jack, you just never quit, do you?” Daniel chuckled.

Jack's heart jumped at the warmth in Daniel's voice. He heard real fondness in the words and the way they were spoken. Maybe he was imagining things, but Daniel sounded different now, more like Daniel in his right mind. Relatively speaking, of course. Was Daniel coming back to him? Was the drug finally wearing off?

“Jack, you might as well give it up and get up," Daniel continued in a fondly scolding voice. "You’re wasting your time. I’m not going to go over there. I’m only still here because I wanted to say good-bye to you before I go.”

Good-bye? GO? Wait a minute - what was Daniel talking about? Going? Where did Daniel think he was going without him?

Jack immediately sat up, his alarm outweighing any concerns he might have had for what getting up so quickly might do to him. The sight of his new surroundings set him back a bit. But only for a split second.

They definitely weren't in the jungle any more. Or in Kansas, for that matter. Jack was sitting on the more or less flat, but still very rough and rocky surface of a cliff top. Probably one of those cliffs along the shoreline of the island, if the ocean sounds were anything to go by. Jack shot a look over his left shoulder. Nothing but more rock and cliffs behind them, a whole lot of wide open space in front. Complete with one hell of a first step, he was guessing, to whatever lay beneath. No jungle. Not a tree in sight. Hallelujah!

Hell, where was his head, who cared about the scenery - Daniel - where was Daniel? Daniel? His voice had come from the right, look over to the right -

Daniel was about twenty-five feet away from him, roughly in the middle of the rocky shelf, sitting cross-legged, staring at him, a strange, bemused expression on his face. Playing Nature Boy had messed him up some, but even like this, sitting serenely before him in all his grimy glory, God help him, but Daniel was a sight. A positive…vision.

Daniel was sublime, sweaty, small cuts and scratches tattooing his naked torso, his bare chest and arms shimmering with a thin covering of perspiration and smeared with dark, dirty patches, looking like some mussed up, slightly smudged, wild-eyed angel. Jack's breath stilled in his chest at the dangerous beauty of the man beaming tenuous but utterly compelling benevolence at him. To hell with the face that launched a thousand ships, this was a face he'd cheerfully kill for. Oh, and not just the face… Have mercy!

Daniel's head was tilted slightly to one side, spiking tufts of his short, sweat-drenched hair framing his high, placid brow like a dark halo. Teasing fire danced in his wide, cerulean eyes as he stroked his naked chest with a wondering, grubby hand, his long, sensitive fingers gliding with agonizing sensuality across his moist, glowing skin, lightly caressing the slippery, dirt-streaked surface they were exploring.

Feeling.

Jack gaped at him, confused and captivated. His throat was dry, his mouth a wasteland which seemed to have developed strange adhesive properties. The only reason his tongue wasn't hanging out was because it was stuck to the roof of it.

Daniel's lush, full lips curved in a small, surprised smile and then parted. Jack stared longingly at them through a rising, sweltering cloud of desire, his entire awareness contracting and focussed upon the sweet, inviting ripeness before him, opening slightly, the tip of a pink, moist tongue darting out of inviting depths, slowly, languorously tasting the fullness, soft moaning following. Daniel, his mouth quivering, sighing, his eyes closing, smiling dreamily as his fingers reached, touched, delicately teased and danced over a puckering nipple.

"Do you like what you see, Jack?" he murmured in silky, lust-laden voice, caressing, asking, offering…

Jack couldn't give him a coherent answer if his life depended on it, even though the answer was most emphatically, YES. YES, YES, YES, OH GOD, YES.

There'd been one or two times in the past, okay, several times, okay, LOTS more times lately, when looking at Daniel had evoked a certain - response. Which he'd ignored. Stomped on, strangled, kicked to pieces, killed to death, shoved down deep and then ignored. But now, but this, Daniel, what he was doing to himself, the way he looked, touching himself, like that, breathing harder, that mouth panting, lips quivering, shining, rosy and flushed, hand stroking, playing, muscles working sinuously beneath his sleek skin as his chest rose and fell, harder, faster, deeper. Hot, so hot, Daniel was so hot, he was so hot, who needed a jungle with all the wildness, the fire, the heat looking right at him, burning for him, right before his eyes. A private conflagration, hotter and brighter than the centre of the sun.

Oh God, Daniel burning and writhing, unashamed and unbridled before him was the most intensely honest, nakedly passionate, most erotic thing he'd ever seen. Daniel opened eyes wide with the wonder of his own excitement, groaning deeply, hungrily and arching his back into the hand loving his chest. Pressing harder, moving it in widening circles, his smoking eyes devouring the man drinking him in as avidly. Daniel's was luminous, passion incarnate, shining with a love so vast and vehement it nearly yanked Jack's heart right out of his chest.

Him. Daniel was looking at him. That light - that love was for him. All for him, only him. Oh my god.

Daniel smiled languorously at him, shuddering with rising bliss, the hand resting in his lap beginning to move slowly, rhythmically, purposefully massaging the blatant bulge beneath. Touching himself, pleasuring himself, showing Jack what Daniel wanted, how he could be, what Jack - what he could have. Daniel moving like that, looking like that, burning, begging, wanting, needing, molten, shivering desire. Oh God, how he wanted everything Daniel wanted to give him.

Jack's fingers clenched. His palms were sweating, his hands aching to reach across, to touch, answering need making him harder than he'd ever been in his life. What Daniel was doing - for him, the look in his eyes, the pure desire on his face. Offering, asking, pleading…

Daniel wasn't teasing him, making some sick show of himself. Daniel was offering himself up, showing him how much - coming, coming - for him. It was exciting, it was beautiful, it was enough to make him come right along with him just watching Daniel's flushed, shining face, his dewy, gleaming eyes, hear the sounds, smell the arousal, feel what he was showing him as Daniel brought himself closer and closer to…

"Touch me, Jack," Daniel trembled and groaned, his eyes mere slits of passion, his hand pushing harder into his groin, rubbing faster as his pelvis rocked insistently, vehemently thrusting forward, increasing its urgent rhythm.

It was too much. It was so honest, so intense, so incredible, and it was - so, so wrong. Wrong Daniel was acting this way, so wrong for him to be seeing it. This was worse than hiding in the closet and taking pictures of the guy on his wedding night. Daniel wasn't in his right mind, didn't know what he was doing. He wouldn't be behaving like this if he wasn't full of the Boogie Man's happy juice. Jack felt disgusted with himself, like some sick voyeur, drooling over Daniel acting this way when he couldn't help himself, taking advantage of him because of a drug which had ripped away his inhibitions, stripped him of his dignity and left him naked and exposed, a secret part of his soul showing. He was salivating over something Daniel had never meant for him to know. His innermost feelings - feelings for him, they were private, a secret, something Daniel had never let him see, wouldn't be letting him see now if he wasn't - wasn't as whacked as he was. Daniel would die if he knew Jack had seen him behaving like this. Daniel would never - never do this to himself in front of him. Not if he was able to know what he was doing.

He couldn't take what Daniel was offering him. Not like this. He couldn't have this gift he wanted so bad it was killing keeping his hands to himself, but Daniel didn't know what he was doing. It just wasn't right. And what was more, once they were out of this mess and both back to normal again, he couldn't let on about any of it. He'd seen nothing, knew nothing about how Daniel felt about him. Nothing to see here, nothing to tell. It never happened.

Never going to happen. Because, when Daniel was in his right mind again, he wouldn't want him to know. Again. Ah…Daniel…

Jack took a deep, resolute breath and grimly shoved away all thoughts of what could have been. "Daniel!" he barked harshly at him, not able to look at him as he started to get up. "Stop fooling around and let's go home."

Daniel hissed with alarm, instantly on the defensive as soon as Jack said the words. Daniel sprang up into a low crouch with the disconcerting, rapid agility of a tense jungle cat preparing to pounce on its unsuspecting prey. His large, blue eyes were wide and wringing with hurt and suspicion. And a strange, hostile fire reminding Jack far too much of that scary something he'd seen lurking behind those eyes earlier.

"Too late!" Daniel snarled at him, coiling his long legs beneath him as if he meant to leap right over Jack's head and take off back down the mountain again. "You're too late!"

"Whoa! Danny, easy. Take it easy. I'm staying put." Jack held up his hands in surrender. Crap, but he was an absolute MORON! He'd just gone and blown it again. Daniel had been begging - begging him to - perfect, he'd had a perfect chance to get a hold of him and like the stupid dumb FUCK he was, he'd blown it. Scruples be damned, Jack wanted to kick his stupid, principled butt around the block. Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Thirty seconds ago Danny was so happy, horny and adoring he'd have done anything for him. It would have been a piece of cake to handle him. Hell, he'd been begging for it! Schmuck! What an ass he was! They could be halfway to the gate by now, but no, he had go all freaking noble and screw things up and now all he'd done was to piss Daniel off and make him all paranoid and skittish again.

Could he get any more retarded and could things get any worse?

Daniel was still crouching warily in loose cannon land, his narrowed, aroused eyes sparking suspicious fire, skittish, muscles tensing and twitching, his body coiled and taut like an apprehensive, randy spring. Half of him still desperate to jump the bones of the man he was smouldering at while the other half was looking more and more like he wouldn't mind killing him.

Jack wanted work past these other guys and get to the part that was his friend. He'd calm Danny down, get him back in the driver's seat, and then walk them both back down to the village. As soon as he could figure out where it was. All of this hopefully before his poor, aching head imploded and all the other aching parts of him gave up the ghost as well.

"It's not too late, Daniel," Jack soothed. "Whatever it is, we'll work on it. Talk about it. But not here. We're both a little banged up and we need some rest. Let's just calm down, now, take a little walk, you and me, go find Teal'c and Carter and go home. It's time to go home, now, Danny. What do you say? You can have a little nap, rest up, tell me all about it after."

Daniel was shaking his head mournfully, looking right at him but not seeing him. "No," he sighed, a restive, regretful sound. "It's too late to go back. No point now. She told me so. She told me, but I wouldn't listen. Didn't want to believe her. She was right. Wasting my time waiting, trying. H - hoping… I should have listened to her and gone while you were sleeping. Shouldn't have waited. She told me you wouldn't…wouldn't want… " Daniel's voice wavered, his eyes filling with aching pain and loss. "I had to try. I hoped… Stupid," he sighed sadly. "She told me so. She was right."

She? She who? What was Daniel talking about? Hoping? Jack suddenly felt colder as Daniel's recent, previous actions began taking on a terrifying, deeper significance. By shutting Daniel down, rejecting him, had he made his final, truly fatal mistake?

No! Don't think like that! Don't think about anything but keeping Daniel talking, getting through to him.

'She' was wrong. Whoever the fuck SHE was!

"Carter?" Jack asked carefully. The only 'she' he could think of having any possible relevance to the situation even though he wasn't exactly sure how.

"No," Daniel smiled ruefully at him, the tension in is body marginally easing as his voice grew calmer and more confidential in tone. "Not Sam. I'll miss Sam. Teal'c too. You'll say good-bye to them for me, won't you Jack?" Daniel's eyes suddenly softened with fondness, becoming overtaken with the earnestness of his request. "Tell them I'm sorry I couldn't wait for them and say good-bye myself. You'll do that for me, won't you, Jack?"

"You're scaring me, Daniel." Crap, that was out before he could stop it. He hadn't meant to say it. But it was true. He was shit-scared, and getting even more so with each passing second. He was in over his head, the water so deep he might never be able to claw to the surface and see his way clear, but he sure wasn't going to go down for the last time without a damned good fight. Danny was counting on him. He was it and he was all Daniel had. God help both of them. He'd have a time-out to crap his drawers later, right now he needed to hold onto his sanity and not let go of Daniel no matter what happened.

No matter what.

"She was angry with me for bringing you here," Daniel's distant eyes were filling with tears. "Very angry. She wanted me to leave you behind in the jungle, but I couldn't do that. Actually,” he paused and leaned forward, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “What she REALLY wanted - I think she wanted me to kill you, but I couldn’t do that either.”

“Glad to hear it,” Jack smiled weakly, only barely managing to keep the fear out of his voice. "Killing your CO is definitely against the regs. I'd have to bring you up on charges for sure." He tried to laugh, but only managed a weak croak. So much for humorous icebreakers.

"Killing your friends isn't very nice either," Daniel's expression was as unfathomable as his emotionless voice. "Are you my friend, Jack?" Daniel continued after a slight pause, in a quiet, cunning tone making Jack's skin crawl.

"What kind of a question is that, Daniel, you know I am!" Jack replied quickly, horrified Daniel would think he'd even need to ask such a thing.

"I know that's what you say, what you want me to think." Daniel's brow was deeply knit with consternation. "But she's been telling me it's not true. She says I shouldn't trust you. You're lying to me. All of you have been lying to me. Fooling me. Telling me you care about me when you really don't. You don't and you never have. She's the only one who ever loved me, ever really cared about me. That's why - that's why you killed her."

WOW! Shut up, Jack, shut up, he's not finished, he's still talking, keep him talking, let him talk. Talk to me, Danny.

The tears were falling freely now, raining twin rivulets coursing unheeded down Daniel's openly grieving face. "I failed her. I was so lost when she left me the first time. Then it got better - I stopped trying as hard to find her - hoping as hard I would. Stopped wanting - wanting her as much as I used to. Wanted someone else. My - my fault she died. I let her go - should have, should have tried harder - " Daniel's voice broke and his head fell as his shoulders shook with a huge, despairing sob. "I'm sorry!" he cried suddenly, vehemently. "I'm sorry! I have to do this. I have to do what she wants. It's my fault she's all alone now!"

"Danny…aw,,,don't - "

"Don't come any closer!" Daniel snarled warningly, his head snapping up and his eyes flaring dangerously in response to Jack's unthinking, overwhelming need to bridge the distance between them to take Daniel into his arms. He wasn't even aware he'd started to move toward him until Daniel's angry challenge brought him up short and back to the fact he was on his hands and knees and crawling toward him. Jesus. That was stupid. But he couldn't help it. He couldn't stand to see Daniel like that, see him in so much pain and not DO something.

"Okay, okay," Jack said quickly, settling himself as rapidly back down on the uneven, rocky surface beneath him. His butt was not going to be thanking him for this later. "Sorry. I'll stay put. Not going to budge from this spot. Honest. Keep talking. Tell me more, okay? What does she want you to do?" Jack entreated. "Who knows, maybe I can help."

Daniel smiled at that, and shook his head. "Oh, I don't think she'd like that, Jack. She doesn't like you very much. Likes you least of all." Daniel licked his lips and wiped his face with an absent, uncaring hand. "I feel really bad about doing all that stuff to you back there. It was her idea. She told me you wanted to play. I think maybe that wasn’t true." Daniel paused, peering at Jack anxiously. Jack could almost see the wheels turning, feel the fierce need in Daniel to push through his manifest mental confusion, to understand what was happening to him. Jack held his breath and silently rooted for Daniel's common sense to bring him on through it and back to him.

"But that would mean she lied to me," Daniel said slowly, carefully, as if the concept was so completely foreign to him he was almost unable to grasp it. "All along she's been saying she's the only one who's ever told me the truth. But if she was lying to me back there - about you, how - how can that be? That can't be right, can it, Jack?"

"Do you think I've been lying to you, Daniel?" Jack ventured slowly. He didn't know if it was the right thing to say, didn't know if saying anything at all was the right thing to do, but Daniel looked so confused, so desperate, he had to say something.

"I don't know what to think anymore," Daniel replied distractedly, the distress in his voice and expression appreciably escalating. "I don't know who to trust. You can't both be telling the truth because you're both saying… I’ve been so confused. I’ve been hearing her for such a long time. But you see – I didn’t KNOW it was her." Daniel made a bitter, wincing face. "I didn't know what was happening to me. Until today.”

“Okay, Daniel,” Jack continued, trying to sound calm, fear making his heart pound against his ribs. “Can we back this up just a little? Who have you been hearing. Since when? Can you tell me?”

A wary look sparked in Daniel's eyes. “She doesn’t want me to. She says this is all a trick. She says there's no point telling you because you won't listen to me. Like always. You won't understand. You're just trying to trick me. You just want to stop me. I can't let you stop me. I'm not supposed to listen to you anymore - No!" Daniel suddenly cried. "I don't want to DO that! I WON'T! Stop SAYING that!"

"Daniel?" Jack asked hesitantly. "Who are you talking to?" He was so not going to like this, but he had to ask, he had to know.

“Please believe me, Jack, I NEVER meant to hurt you," Daniel continued, as if he hadn't heard the question. His voice was so desperately pleading, aching with the need for understanding and forgiveness Jack felt a huge lump of sorrow clogging his throat. "You have to believe me. That – wasn’t me. I'd never - never want to hurt you!”

"I believe you, Danny," Jack was so overwhelmed by the need to reassure Daniel he almost couldn't get the words out. "I know you wouldn't. But if it wasn't you, then who? Who wanted to hurt me? Who made you do it?"

Daniel looked at him like he was surprised he needed to ask. Like it should have been immediately obvious to him.

“Sha’uri.”


	3. Chapter 3

_ Oh boy, here we go.  Careful, Jack, we are officially in the deep end of the shit pool. _

“Daniel, Sha’uri is dead.  No one knows that better than you.” 

Daniel nodded his head vigorously in agreement.  “I know, I know, I know.  That’s what we all thought.  That’s the way it looked.  Well, she did change, but she didn’t leave me.  "She’s been here all along. Here." Daniel tapped his chest. "Talking to me.  I just didn’t understand it was her I was hearing.  I thought I was hearing things.  Like I was before, when you all thought I was - was going…" 

"Nuts," Jack finished grimly. 

Daniel flashed him a crooked grin.  “Yeah.  That. I’ve been a little confused.  Worried. I know I'm not crazy but I didn’t know what was happening to me. I couldn't find any logical explanation for - for everything I was experiencing.  I knew there had to be one, but I couldn't - couldn't find it. I tried so hard, Jack.  I really did.  But I was right.  There was a reason. I'm not - not crazy. There's nothing wrong with me; it was HER the whole time. 

"She was causing all of it. The dreams, the feelings, sometimes – thoughts, thoughts in my head - didn’t make sense. Weren't my thoughts. Sometimes I'd want to – to do things.  Strange things. I - I didn't understand any of it.  And sometimes I'd look around, find myself somewhere - I didn't know how I got there. I remembered what happened with Kawalsky, but we're always checked for Goa'ulds, so I knew that couldn't be it.  I wasn't seeing things; it didn't feel the same as - as when you locked me up. But the voices, the thoughts \- missing time - scared me. 

_ No shit, kid, that'd scare the crap out of me, too!  Jesus, Danny, you've been dealing with this - alone?  Why? Why didn't you say something, why didn't you come to me? _

"I didn’t know what to do. There was no one to talk to.  No one I could tell.  No one I could trust.  To believe me - just \- just LISTEN to me and help me figure it out.”  Daniel shrugged and opened his hands in a ‘well, do you blame me’ gesture at Jack's loud grunt of protest.  “Don't even say it!" he admonished Jack sternly.  " I could have come to you? Oh yeah," Daniel flushed angrily, "that worked SO well the last time. After all, I'm 'flaky', even on a good, day, right,  Jack?  I'd started telling you any of this, what would your first  reaction have been?" 

_ Don't, Danny, don't say it. _

'He's nuts!'  That's what you would have thought!  You wouldn't have listened - none of you would have listened, you would have just locked me up again.  I couldn't let you do that to me, I couldn't go back to that place.  No way I was letting anyone put me back in that place.  That's what you did the last time I heard things and it wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t crazy then either, but you didn’t believe me.  Why would you have believed me about this?”  Daniel's face abruptly brightened and he beamed brilliant satisfaction and relief at the shamed man watching him.  “But, it’s okay now.  I know what’s going on.  I don’t need to worry about it anymore.” 

_ Oh.  That's why. _

You locked me up.  You didn't believe me. You did that to me.  Daniel's pained words hit Jack like thunderous accusations.  True. All of it true. Every single damning word. He'd ignored his gut and bowed to 'medical wisdom'.  He'd let them tell him his friend was insane and lock him away like an animal.  He'd turned his back on Daniel and walked away.  Left him alone in that terrible place with Ma'chello's demons tormenting him, abandoned him to fight his way back to sanity on his own. 

Through that whole, sordid episode Jack had never once questioned his implicit faith in those who 'knew better' and really didn't.  He'd never given one particle of that same trust to the one who always knew best and was never believed. No matter how many times Daniel proved himself, no matter how often he showed he was almost always 'righter' than everyone else always telling him he was wrong, Jack hadn't believed in him. He'd even made Daniel beg for his trust in that cold, white room, right up to the bitter end when he finally, grudgingly, bestowed it. 

Jesus, after the way he'd treated him it was a wonder Daniel could even bear to look at him now, never mind still trusted him.  That was the real hell of it.  Even after everything he'd not said to him and done for him, something in Daniel was still reaching out to him, still trusting him. 

Trusting him with his life.  His life. 

His life! 

Suddenly Jack knew what Boogie had been wanting him to do. What was really at stake here, what Daniel needed from him, and needed him to do for him.   Daniel's life was literally in his hands. His hands, no one else's. Maybe he'd let Daniel down before, but that was then.  And this was now.  Major 'make it all up to him' opportunity, his for the taking.  No frigging way he was dropping THIS ball. 

Daniel was counting on him. 

_ You wanna fight me for him, bitch?  Bring it on! _

Daniel started to stand up.  “I’m sorry, Jack.  It’s been nice talking to you, but I have to go now.  She’s waiting for me to keep my promise.” 

_ Oh no, you don't! _

"Danny, wait!"  Jack called out sharply, bringing a slight edge of the 'Colonel' into his voice.  "What are you talking about - what promise?  What does Sha'uri want you to do?" 

_ Tell me what's going on.  You owe me an explanation.  Whatever you think you have to do for her, you're part of us as well.  You can't just leave me, leave the team like this without telling me why. _

Jack didn't say the words, but he could see Daniel was getting it. You've got ties.  Ties to the living. A new life now that needs you more than the old one.  It has to count for something. We should count for something. You can't just turn your back on us and walk away. No matter who's in there lying to you, telling you to. 

Daniel was hovering, hesitating, what Jack was telling him without saying a word obviously making him stop and consider.  Question whatever he was hearing in his head. The utter anguish of indecision grew in his eyes, as did his agitation. 

"Confusing me," he muttered unhappily, shaking his head, his entire body twanging with tension.  "You're confusing me.  I can't do it.  I can't please both of you.  You can't both be right."  Daniel made a tentative move toward him and then stopped and stood shaking and staring helplessly at him.  "I don't know what to do, Jack!"  he cried, his voice and body shuddering with distress. 

"Come over to me, Daniel," Jack said quietly, opening his arms to him.  "Come on and sit down, and we'll talk about it." 

"No!"  Daniel cried out, leaping hastily backwards.  "You're lying!  You don't want to help me, don't want to listen to me!  You're just trying to trick me!" 

"Why would I want to do that, Daniel?"  Jack asked him, trying to keep his voice calm and to not react to the rising feeling of foreboding swelling within him as he realised what lay behind Daniel in the direction he was retreating. 

The edge of the cliff. 

"You don't want to help me, you want to take me back,"   Daniel retorted with an accusing glare. "You're not going to listen, you're just going to lock me up!  I don't need your 'help', Jack.  She's telling me what I have to do." 

Daniel sighed, waved a distracted hand at him and wavered slightly, as if he was meaning to turn and walk away.  Only one place he was going to end up if he walked in that direction and the first step was the last one he would ever take if he got there.  Not good. 

_ Careful, careful, be careful what you say.  He's still too far away. You don't want him heading in that direction but if you spook him, if he panics and runs he's likely to run blindly right over the edge. _

"Daniel, give me a chance!" Jack said quickly.  "You think I won't listen?  I don't want to help? Is that what Sha'uri is telling you?  If it is, she's….mistaken.  I do want to help you, Daniel.  I want to help both of you.  But you have to help me understand, so I'll know how I can. Tell me what she wants you to do." 

Daniel swayed slightly, his eyes narrowing as he tried to decide whether or not to respond. "She wants me to make it right," Daniel said finally.  "She's been with me, but now she's fading.  She tried - she wanted - wanted to live again, but she wasn't strong enough. Tried, but couldn't - couldn't change places with me. She can't live again like she wanted to, and she can't stay much longer." 

_ What the FUCK is he talking about?  This - whatever it is in Daniel wanted to take him over somehow - like - like a Goa'uld? _

"She'll have to go soon. She hasn't got the strength to stay with me much longer," Daniel continued sorrowfully. "Then she'll be alone.  She doesn't want to be alone.  Doesn't want to be without me.  Doesn't want me to live - without her." 

_ Oh crap, here it comes! _

"She wants me to go with her, Jack," Daniel looked at Jack imploringly, begging him to understand.  "I have to.  I - I - it's my \- it's my fault she's this way.  I owe her a life to replace the one she lost because of me.  It's only fair. What I want - well, I can't have what I want, so I might as well… What does it matter what happens to me?"  Daniel's voice fell to almost a whisper as he looked away, his blue eyes bleak with grief.  "I might as well go with her. Not like there's anything else.  Anyone…" 

_ Say something, you moron!  Tell him! _

Tell him?  Tell him what?  That his best friend was waiting here with open arms to take him home?  That he had nothing to fear, he'd be listened to, believed, taken seriously? Cared about.  Cared - for.  Yeah, all of that.  Why should Daniel believe a single word he said?  After all, he had such a stellar track record of being someone Daniel could turn to and trust.  Why shouldn't Daniel think some weird voice in his head saying it was his dead wife telling him he was loved and wanted was more credible to him than his 'laugh at him and leave him', so-called best friend, Jack O'Neill. 

And what was up with this 'Sha'uri' anyway?  Exactly who or what had Daniel been listening to?  A little 'know thy enemy' might go a long way to helping Jack figure out how to talk Daniel out of trusting - whatever it was - over him.  'Cause he didn't care who it said it was, all this talk of 'going away', 'changing places' and 'owing her a life' didn't add up to anything sounding like it had Daniel's best interests or continued good health at heart.  Which meant, whatever it was, it wasn't anything good. 

Which was probably why the Boogie Man had gone after it in the first place. 

“Daniel," Jack prodded gently, "I really want to help you make the right choice.  Do your believe that?" 

It took a moment, but eventually Daniel faintly nodded.  As much as Jack wished he would, Daniel didn't make eye contact so Jack couldn't tell if he was listening. But he couldn't afford to stop, had to keep trying, had to keep talking, hoping what he was saying was sinking through somehow. 

"All right then, help me out.  I don't understand how this has happened.  We all saw Sha'uri die.  We know she's dead.  But you're saying she didn’t die, she changed?  And she came to you?  What does that mean?  I don't understand how that could be possible.  Do you know, can you explain it to me?” 

Daniel looked calmer.  He'd stopped shaking and his stance was less wary.  His expression was profoundly contemplative, brow furrowed with concentration as he searched his thoughts for his answer.  “I’m not sure how it happened.  Maybe it was the ribbon device. We were connected. She was communicating with me, sending her thoughts to me through it.  Maybe somehow she was able to do more, able to - come into me \- at the same time. Through the device.  Send more than her thoughts.  I don't know."  He frowned, obviously deeply considering what he had just said.  "I haven't had too much time to think about it." 

Daniel’s translation of Boogie’s words flashed through Jack’s mind.  Vengeful spirits.  One who feeds and needs release.  And one who must chose between the worlds.  Given what Daniel had just told him, those words were making a lot more sense.  Way too much sense. 

The ribbon device.  Could it have caused all this? Was what Daniel was saying actually possible? Jack knew what Carter's answer would be, she'd be having trouble with the basic concept there'd be anything to 'transfer', but could the device somehow have allowed Sha’uri's - consciousness, soul, spirit, life energy, whatever you wanted to call it  - to attach itself to Daniel, enabling something of her to survive the death of her body? 

The idea wasn't as far-fetched as it sounded. Ma'chello had managed to arrange for a few 'transfers' with that damned machine of his.  Jack shuddered. He had fond memories of that particular experience.  Not!  After hanging out in Teal'c and having to live with feeling Junior squirming around inside him Jack still had moments when a gas bubble gave him the creeps.  But that little inter-body bait and switch had involved bodies all still warm and breathing before and after. Still, consciousness was consciousness, what was the difference? Ma'chello had proven it was possible, and had found a way to do it.  If one piece of alien technology could do it, why not another? 

So, what was he really saying here?  The 'she' inside Daniel, it really WAS Sha'uri?  She'd used the ribbon device to send part of herself into Daniel moments before Teal'c shot her and she'd been lurking inside Daniel ever since? Feeding on him, using his life essence to stay alive, trying to take over his body, but hadn't been able to, and now that she was about to - go poof - or whatever - she wanted to take him out with her?  If she couldn't continue to exist, than neither could he? 

Crap. That didn't sound like Sha'uri! Granted he hadn't had much time to get to know her, but from what he did know, from what he'd seen, this whole scenario just didn't track.  Sha'uri wouldn't want to hurt Daniel.  No way! Sha’uri had loved Daniel. Crazy, nutso, bonzo about the kid.  Hell, who could blame her, who wasn't? She would never want to hurt him.  Not like that Goa'uld bitch who would have melted his brain if Teal'c hadn't - 

Oh crap! 

How could he have been so STUPID! Sha'uri wasn't the only one in her body, she'd had a passenger, a very slimy, nasty passenger, one who'd want nothing better than to see Daniel dead if she couldn't continue to prey on him to maintain her slimy non-existence.  The she-snake hadn't had the most winning personality when she was alive, no reason to believe she'd be any more loving or considerate now that she was dead.  Or - whatever.  Oh God, it hadn't been Sha'uri whispering in Daniel's ear all this time, it was Amonet! 

The same time the full truth hit Jack Daniel's head snapped around and he was smiling, his eyes blazing with a terrible light of serene determination.  He'd made up his mind. 

"She's right.  There's no reason to stay. Talking is pointless; I'm just wasting time. She doesn't have much left.  I have to keep my promise.  I have to go with her.  Now." Daniel smiled and pointed behind him, at the yawning void beyond the outer rim of the cliff.  “I have to go, now, Jack. Out there.  She’s telling me it's time.  I hope you understand.  I hope you forgive me.  I - I…never mind."  A mist of regret shimmered in Daniel's longing eyes.  "It doesn’t matter now.  Good-bye, Jack.” 

“Daniel – wait!” Jack cried desperately. "You don't have to do this! Don't listen to her.  You don't understand!  She's not - " Jack's voice faltered.  Crap! What could he say?  Daniel was convinced he'd been listening to Sha'uri all this time, trying to tell him his little voice was really Amonet - Daniel was so paranoid, so utterly confused by everything the snake had been whispering in his ear, why would Daniel believe him? What else could he say?  What else could he say to Daniel to try and reach him? 

"This isn't the way," Jack stammered.  You don't have to - you're not - don’t - don't go yet. You can’t go.  I – I don’t want you to go.” 

_ Don't want you to go, can't lose you, not now, I know what it all means, what I haven't been able to say to you, admit to myself, now I'm so close to losing you I know I can't.  I \- I know… _

Daniel tilted his head and peered at him, eyes narrowing with suspicion. 

“Why?” 

_ Tell him you fricking YUTZ don't choke, just open your goddamn mouth and SAY it. _

“What do you mean – why?  I just…don’t.” 

_ Well, that was courageous! _

Daniel smirked and took a step back.  “I knew it,” he snorted derisively.  “I knew you couldn’t say it.  Good-bye Jack.”  His lips twisting with a bitter smile, Daniel dismissed him with a disgusted wave, turned and began to walk toward the edge. 

“What do you want me to say?” Jack blurted out desperately. 

_ You KNOW what he wants to hear, you fricking, gutless wonder.  I can't believe you're standing here watching him walk away - walk to his death and you still - still won't say it. Guess when you said you'd fight her for him you meant only as long as it didn't mean you had to tell him the truth. _

Jack's plea stopped Daniel cold.  He swung back around, his eyes flashing with indignation and ire. 

“Oh hell, Jack,” he shouted.  “I don’t know!  After three years of putting up with your stupid nicknames and your jokes – usually at my expense, - your condescending pats on the head and your constant denigration of my judgement, my abilities, my SANITY even, maybe an ‘I’m sorry?’  Possibly an  ‘oh by the way, good job, Daniel.’  And since I’m shooting for the moon here, dare I hope for a  ‘by the way, I give a shit about you?’  What do you say, Jack?  Could you manage one of those?  Don’t bother answering, I wouldn’t want to make you strain something thinking about it.” 

Daniel started to back away again. His words had been angry, but his eyes were anything but.  Daniel didn't want to go, he didn't want to leave him.  The plea in those huge, desperate eyes cried out to him, their message unmistakable. 

_ Tell me she's wrong.  This isn't all there is. _

If he didn't say something now, Daniel was lost to him.  Forever.  No matter which way it went from this moment on. Even if he saved Daniel, if he stayed silent, he'd still lose him.  'Moment of truth' wasn't just a cliché.  This was fricking IT.  The Moment, with a capital 'M'.  He choked now, he might as well follow Daniel over the side 'cause it was well and truly - over. 

"I love you," Jack said quietly. "It might not seem like much, but it's all I've got to give you.  I hope it's a good enough reason for you to stay." 

Omigawd.  He'd said it.  He'd actually said it.  I love you.  He did.  He really, really did.  He loved Danny.  Not just, 'best buds, best pals, friends for life' love, but - Love. With a capital 'L' Love.  As in 'there's no one else for me but you, babe, 'til the day I die', kind of Love.  Hadn't just said it - meant it. 

What do you know about that? 

Jack gaped at Daniel.  Who was doing a fair imitation of a stunned mullet himself.  Daniel's mouth hung open, his eyes got wider; he stared speechless at Jack looking for the world like a guy who'd just heard his best friend tell him he loved him. 

What Jack couldn't tell from Daniel's white, blank face was whether or not this was good news or bad.  Hoping for the former but getting more and more apprehensive about the latter the longer Daniel stood there, gulping and staring. 

A bleat of explosive laughter brayed out of Daniel's mouth.  "You?"  he choked, wagging a hand at him.  "You?  Love me?  You? YOU?"  He snorted again, his face working desperately as if he was struggling to hold something back.  And losing.  "God, Jack, you're too much!" he gasped, his body beginning to shake with the effort of containing his outburst.  "You're so funny.  This is the best.  The best!  You'll say ANYTHING to try and fool me!  I can't stand it \- you're just so FUNNY!" 

Daniel clamped a hand to his mouth, hung on for a few more valiant seconds, but it was like trying to hold back a tidal wave.  He continued to wave his other hand weakly at the stunned man before him while he giggled and chortled in near hysterical abandon.  "You LOVE me?"  he howled, hugging his sides while spasms of uncontrollable mirth continued to rock him.  "Oh - oh - oh - God - this is too much - too much \- Jack, you're KILLING me!" 

_ Lousy, chortling, ungrateful - LAUGHING?  You sniggering little SHIT! _

"You think I'm playing games with you?"  Jack roared at him, hurt, affronted anger igniting dangerously within him.  "You think I'd mess with you about something like this?  Especially now?  I tell you I love you and you think it's funny?  Well, fuck you, too!" 

Jack was dimly aware Daniel's laughter was swiftly trailing away and his expression was growing confused and distressed again, but he wasn't thinking much past the force of his frustrated fury.  "I don't care whether you believe me or not!" he raged at Daniel, anger becoming sorrow and grief and threatening to further transmute into something he wasn't going to be able to hold back any more than Danny'd been able to can the laughter.  "I love you, you stubborn son of a bitch.  I said it.  I meant it.  And what's more, you can just SHOVE it for all I care! !  No - you know what?"  Jack growled, jumping up to his feet.  "Fuck this talking. It never gets me anywhere except into more fucking shit. You don't think I love you? Telling you doesn't do it for you?  Don't move, I'm coming over there and I'll SHOW you!" 

Daniel actually let Jack get several feet closer to him before something within him abruptly roused.  The last failing wisps of laughter were strangled; cold, implacable warning flashed in Daniel's eyes as he savagely hissed and took several quick steps back, his arm whipping up in a warning, defensive movement, straight out, palm stiffly extended.  A very familiar gesture, one Jack had seen many times.  Employed by the Goa'uld of the week about to use a ribbon device on him. 

Jack froze.  
.  
“Don't!" Daniel spat at him.  "Don’t come any closer.  I'm sorry," he gulped, blinking furiously.  "I didn't mean to laugh at you.  I really didn't know.  You've never - and then when I - and you…wouldn't… I thought I knew for sure you didn't, and now you're saying you do and I believe you.  You do," he finished softly, his eyes gentle with wonder.  "You really do.  You do.  Oh, Jack…" 

Daniel hung his head and wrapped his arms consolingly around his body as a sudden, harsh stream of words spewed out of him.  "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's too late.  Promised her, promised her, can't break my promise -  Dammit, Jack!" Daniel scolded angrily, jerking his head up and glaring accusingly at the man he was berating.  "Why are you doing this to me, why are you telling me this, NOW?  Maybe if I'd known sooner, before - before I promised -  NO!" Daniel cried out, his voice wringing with anguish.  "I can't listen to you any more.  You’re trying to trick me, trying to confuse me, make me forget I promised her I was going with her. I have to go, you have to understand, it's the only way to make it up to her.  Please, Jack!" 

Daniel's eyes were huge and overflowing with bitter regret, his retreating steps slow and shambling as he began to back away.  Toward the edge.  Jack took a step forward, his mind working furiously.  Seeing where he was.  Seeing where Daniel was.  Running the odds.  Coming to an inescapable conclusion. 

He hadn't a hope in hell of stopping Daniel if he started to run. No way he could reach him before Daniel got to the edge.   The only way to save Daniel was to persuade him to come to him.  No other way. 

"What about me?"  Jack asked him plaintively. 

_ Gotta work, this has to work, please let me get through to him! _

"What?"  Daniel asked him blankly, pausing in mid-shamble. 

"You're going with her because she loves you and she doesn't want to be alone, but what about me?  I love you too.  If you go with her, I'll be alone.  Is that fair?" 

_ Forgive me, Daniel, fighting dirty now.  I'll make it up to you later, I promise but right now, anything goes. _

Daniel didn't answer him for a minute.  His face was an agony of indecision.  "Nooo…but, I- I have to go." 

"All right then," Jack said quietly.  "You have to go. Okay, fair enough.  You made a promise.  I can respect that.  I wouldn't want you to break a promise.  You're going.  That's settled.  Well, then, I'll go with you.  We'll die together. Problem solved." 

"D- die?"  Daniel said weakly, licking his lips. 

"Yes, Daniel," Jack returned, a little louder.  "Die.  That's what she's asking you to do for her.  Die.  If you walk off that edge like she's telling you to, you'll die.  We'll both die, 'cause I'm going to walk off it with you. I don't want to live without you either, so I'm going to die with you.  That's how much I love you." 

_ Come on, Daniel, hear what I just told you. Somewhere in there you know it's not right, what I just said. You KNOW!  Work it out! _

"You - you'd die - for me?"  Daniel whispered, the notion clearly disturbing him.  "No.  No.  That's not right.  I don't want you to.  I don't want - don’t want you to do that.  I don't want you to die, Jack." 

"Why?"  Jack pressed gently. 

_ That's my boy, that's my Danny. Stay with me, Danny, stay with me.  Just a little longer.  You're close, so close; you're almost there. _

Daniel lip was starting to tremble, the distress in his eyes growing as they pooled and shimmered.  "I - I don't want - I don't want you to be hurt, don't want anything bad to happen to you.  I - I love you." 

"You don't want me to die because you love me?" 

"No!"  Daniel cried.  "Don't want you to die!" 

"SHE wants you to die, Daniel."  Jack continued, starting to take a few, experimental steps toward the trembling man shaking even harder as he watched Jack's careful advance, but allowing the approach and not retreating.  "She wants you to hurt yourself - kill yourself - for her.  Because she says she loves you and doesn't want you to live without her.  Is that love, Daniel?  Is it?" 

"Nooooo…"  Daniel moaned.  "Sha'uri…" 

"Daniel, think!"  Jack urged, taking another step.  "This voice talking to you, telling you to do these things, do you really think Sha'uri - would Sha'uri want you to kill yourself for her?  Would she?" 

Blue eyes, locked with his, widening, not in confusion, indecision. 

Understanding. 

Contact! 

"No!"  Daniel shook his head.  "She'd die first, she did die, trying to help me, protect me - oh my God, Jack, what have I been thinking - listening to - OH GOD!" 

Daniel screamed, clutched his head and doubled over, screaming again. 

“Ah – God!  Not Sha’uri, not Sha'uri - it’s – HER!  Amonet! She’s in my head, Jack!  Hurting me! Ahhh!  She's trying to - trying to make me - I can't stop her!  Watch out, Jack \- JACK!” 

“Fight it, Danny!”  Jack yelled as he broke into a run. “ I’m coming!” 

Daniel’s head flew up.  Something behind Daniel's eyes snarled at Jack, twisting his friend’s gentle face into a grotesque mask of hate. “You're too late.  He's mine!”  it taunted as it jerked Daniel’s body around and hurtled him toward the edge of the cliff. 

"Danny!"  Jack cried out to him as he tried to force his aching legs to move faster.  God, Daniel was so fast.  Streaking straight for the edge of the cliff.  Not stopping.  He wasn't going to stop. 

…twenty feet…. 

_ Must go faster, faster!  MOVE! The thing's gonna make him run right over the side! _

….ten feet….. 

_ Can't let this happen, can't let him go over.  RUN, dammit - REACH!  Closing the gap, I can do it, I can make it, I can get to him before he hits the edge.  Just a few more feet - NO! _

……five feet….. 

_ Not gonna make it.  Oh God, oh GOD he's on the edge, why didn't I move sooner, just a little faster, so close, not enough time. _

"DANNY!" 

The shriek tore from lungs already bursting, shattering the air as if Jack could use the very sound of his loss to pull Daniel back to safety.  Daniel's teetering body, balanced on the knife-edge danced dizzily before Jack's streaming eyes, an ephemeral, momentary phantom teasing him with one last, precious glimpse of what he would never see again and had no chance of saving. 

Daniel was on the edge.  Still on the brink.  Still - still there.  Not a trick, not a phantom, he was there, waiting, holding, somehow.  Not for long, just an instant, his life hanging, hovering over the abyss.  Buying him time, those few precious seconds.  Time, just a little time.  All he needed.  He'd get there in time. 

Desperate burst of speed, swiftly spanning the last, small gap, arm straining outward fingers clawing through the air frantic to grasp, hold, save. 

_ Good boy!  Hang on, kid, I've got you! _

Daniel was just starting to finally topple forward into the yawning emptiness as Jack reached him.  In the last possible second his aching, frantic fingers closed triumphantly on Daniel's belt and he yanked him back, hard, snatching him out of death's embrace and bringing Daniel shuddering and reeling firmly into his. 

_ Got you!  Never letting go!  Never. _

Daniel instantly started to struggle against Jack's efforts to continue to haul him away from the edge.  He snarled and swung around, his right fist flying toward Jack's head as he charged him.  Jack narrowly avoided the blow as Daniel crashed into him, knocking him off balance.  Jack barely had time to lock his arms firmly around Daniel and clutch him, howling and writhing to his chest as the pair of them reeled over and hit the ground with a force sending shards of pain screaming through Jack's back and shoulders. 

He wasn't going to be able to move tomorrow, but right now he had to ignore every ache, moan and protest of his bashed and battered body and concentrate only on holding onto the man in his arms and not letting him go. 

"Release me, HA'TAKA!" a twisted, inhuman voice swarmed out of Daniel's throat as the thing in Daniel's body struggled bitterly against Jack's restraint. 

"Aw - hup yours!"  Jack grunted and grimly locked his wrists across Daniel's chest.  "Bite me," he sneered and then had immediate cause to regret his choice of words as the thing whipped Daniel's head down and buried his teeth in the hands desperately clenched together on his chest.  "OW!  JE-SUS!   Biting!  No biting!" 

Frantic to disrupt the dental attack threatening his grip Jack yowled and heaved Daniel over onto his stomach.  Slamming the full weight of his own body into Daniel's back he momentarily crushed the wind out of him, making the thing inside Daniel grunt and let go.  Before it had a chance to recover Jack fumbled to renew his former hold and hugging Daniel with all the stubborn strength he could muster Jack began to rapidly roll them across the rocky surface beneath them, moving them farther away from the edge of the cliff.  Daniel's passenger cursed and fought against him every agonizing inch he managed to shift them, but Jack kept them moving, ignoring the unforgiving surface beneath him as he continued to doggedly roll, tussle, and drag Daniel bodily further and further away from the cliff. 

Jack yowled again, cursing as a jagged protrusion bit into his side and he felt a resultant sharp, searing pain so intense it almost made him lose his hold.  He was bleeding.  Just a scratch.  He'd had worse.  He'd worry about it later.  He had a hell of a fight on his hands at the moment.  The thing possessing Daniel was not happy with him for keeping it from making Danny take a swan dive off the cliff.  It could suffer. So, apparently, could he. Crap! Now it was clawing him! 

God, the thing was strong! Jack grimly wrapped his legs around Daniel's thighs and squeezed desperately, barely managing to thwart a particularly vicious lunge against his aching, over-taxed arms. His hands were so tightly clenched on his own wrists he was bruising them and still it was all he could do to hold onto the raging, howling, cursing body he was barely managing to contain. 

A flying wad of spittle struck his eyes, momentarily blinding him.  Expectorating immediately followed by a torrent of coarse, incomprehensible words Jack had a feeling were not meant to be complimentary.   "You curse your mother with that mouth?"  Jack panted mockingly.  An answering elbow to his stomach made him respond with a few choice words of his own. 

Jack knew he had to face the hard truth he wasn't going to be able to take much more of this.  It wasn't helping Daniel was not only younger, but he'd gone into this little tussle fresh and no way near as banged up and worked over. Add those obvious advantages to the fact the thing inside him was ruthless and determined to escape, and it didn't have any problems with bashing either him or Daniel about any way it could in order to get the man holding onto it to let go.  Daniel might not hurt him, but this thing would cheerfully kill him if he gave it half a chance.  Jack didn't want to hurt Daniel, but it was looking more and more as if he didn't have a choice.  He'd just about had it, where Cruella, here, seemed to be getting her second wind.   As much as he hated the thought, he was going to have to knock Daniel out to keep him from killing BOTH of them. 

The struggles of the man in his arms were getting more frenzied, desperate.  Jack lay on his side, his arms and legs still implacable wound around Daniel while he tried to fight past the pain shooting through him from practically every cell in his body.  He couldn't give into it.  Couldn't let go.  Daniel's body was starting to shake, as if something was happening, as if somewhere inside him another battle was raging, one as bitter as the one being waged on the outside.  Jack hoped the desperate trembling of Daniel's thrashing body was an indication he was fighting against what was controlling him.  He hoped Daniel was winning, because even though he knew he didn't dare let go, Jack wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on. 

The thing bit him again, making Jack howl.  The new, unexpected sharpness of the pain distracted him for just an instant and the thing in Daniel's body surged abruptly against his arms, breaking his grip.  A savage, stinging kick to Jack's kneecap brought tears to his eyes while the thing rolled free.  It clawed away rapidly from Jack, scrambling along the rock face, springing up getting ready to run again.  Roaring, Jack leapt up and tackled Daniel from behind, locking his arms around Daniel's chest and pulling him back into him before it had a chance to bolt. 

Spitting and snarling the thing strained against Jack's hold, snapping Daniel's head back, crashing it into Jack's forehead.  Jack reeled drunkenly backward with the force of the blow, feeling his vision swim alarmingly.  That wasn't good, had to get past it, couldn't break, couldn't let go. 

"Come on, Danny" he hissed desperately into his struggling friend's ear.  "Fight her.  You've got to help me.  Can't - can't hold on much longer.  DANNY!  FIGHT!" 

Daniel's wildly thrashing body abruptly spasmed in his arms.  "Jack!"  Daniel cried as he suddenly fell back limply against the man struggling to support the burden of his unexpected weight.  "Something - something's happening," Daniel gasped, his head lolling into the hollow of Jack's neck as his legs folded.  "It's working.  It's working. What Kosha gave me…killing…ahhhh…" 

Daniel's breath gurgled in his throat, his eyes fluttered closed and he slumped, inert, lifeless. 

Not breathing. 

Not breathing! 

"Goddammit!  Dammit!  Daniel!"   Jack raged, terror ripping through him as he quickly threw Daniel on his back on the ground. Breathing, had to get him breathing again.  Worry about why he'd gone out like this later, just get him breathing - 

Jack's heart nearly seized up with shock as the eyes of the man he was leaning over suddenly snapped open.  They were feral and blazing.  Evil, soulless. Laughing at him. 

"Fool!"  Amonet sneered at him as Daniel's hands whipped up, faster than he could think to react to block them, fastening around his neck, inhumanly strong, tightening.  "You may have saved his life, but I will not die alone." 

Crap.  Suckered again.  This really wasn't his day.  And as last ones went, he'd rather be fishing. 

Jack grabbed Daniel's wrists in a futile attempt to break the death-grip and save himself.  He knew it was pointless, knew he'd never shake off those impossibly strong hands before the snake used them - used Daniel - to choke the life out of him.  He was utterly screwed, check, checkmate and about to check out, but he'd be damned he was leaving this life whining or looking like a loser.  He'd die first. Ah, that was droll. 

 He glared defiance down at the cold, triumphant alien eyes staring back at him. 

_ Do your worst, bitch, you won't see me go out screaming or begging.  And when we're both in hell together you'd better find a good place to hide because I'm coming for you. _

The hands around his neck were holding, but not tightening.  Trembling with the urgent need to kill, but not squeezing.  Holding, holding.  Being held back. 

Sonofabitch, somewhere inside there Daniel was still fighting.  Holding her back.  Not letting her use him to complete her last, desperate act of evil.  Way to go, Dannyboy!. 

And it was her last act.  Jack could see fear shrieking in the eyes beneath him.  The utter, consuming terror of impending extinction.  Time running out, nowhere left to run, no more tricks up the sleeve, can't finesse your way out of this one, nowhere to hide from unavoidable oblivion. 

Eviction notice, end of the line.  Pack your bags, bitch, you've been served. 

Daniel's hands jerked open, releasing him.  Jack gripped Daniel's limp wrists to stop his hands from flopping to the ground as the thing within him keened wildly, throwing one last, hideous scream of denial into the witnessing twilight. 

Good riddance to bad rubbish. 

Daniel groaned, abruptly rolled over and struggled to push himself up to his hands and knees.  His body was bucking with great, retching spasms as if he was trying to spew his guts out, or cough something up.  It was one hell of a hairball, the way his body was working to get rid of it. 

"Easy, Danny, easy," Jack soothed as he wrapped his arms around Daniel's convulsing body.  "I've got you.  Lean on me." 

Daniel gave his hanging head one short nod and then groaned as another convulsive wave ripped through him.  Oh, here we go, here it comes.  Jack tightened his supporting grip and grimaced, looking away as what looked like steaming, black sludge suddenly started oozing out of Daniel's mouth in a thick, disgusting viscous ribbon. Goo.  Ooh.  Gross. 

After he'd painfully disgorged a rather alarming quantity Daniel gave a final, emphatic heave and went limp and still in his arms.  Jack quickly dragged him a short distance away from the mass of whatever he'd hacked up and then swiftly, gently laid his unmoving friend on his back on the ground. 

Daniel's face was so slack and pale it looked like he was dead, but a quick check of his pulse, faint, but there, breathing, but barely, eased Jack's anxiety quotient down a notch.  Now he was only slightly out of him mind with worry, not completely.  Much better!  Daniel was still with him.  Barely, barely, but still hanging on.  But now what?  Now what should he do? Freaking was not an option but it was starting to sound like more fun than sanity. 

"Daniel?"  Jack said urgently, leaning over Daniel and taking his face in his hands.  "Geez, Danny, come on.  Don't do this to me, buddy."  He slapped Daniel's face gently.  "Wake up now, Danny.  It's all over.  She's gone.  You've won." 

It was over.  That last dying scream had more than convinced him Amonet had given up the ghost.  Jack bit back the hysterical burst of laughter the absurd analogy evoked.  She was gone.  It should be over.  But Daniel wasn't moving.  Still breathing, but not moving. He'd won, but what had having her in him and fighting her out of him done to him?  It wasn't a victory if somehow she'd still managed, in the end, to take him with her after all. 

Jack started violently as he felt a large, firm hand falling heavily on his shoulder. "Boogie!"  he crowed, nearly sick with relief as the witch doctor's craggy, concerned face moved into view.  He'd never been happier to see such an ugly mug in his life.  Here was the guy who'd started this whole thing.  He'd seen the problem, he'd tried to help, Jack could only hope desperately Boogie knew what to do to help Daniel come back.  He had to know, he had to be able to help.  Fix it, fix it. Fix Daniel.  Make it all better. 

"What's wrong with him?"  Jack asked helplessly.  He wasn't going to panic.  Was not going to panic.  They were safe now, it was over.  Daniel was going to be fine.  He just had to calm down, stop his head from spinning, oh, eyes going funny now, this wasn't good. Boogie looked weird, Daniel was creeping him out he was so pale and still, his own voice was sounding whacked out and far away.  It was all starting to catch up with him, the pain, the worry, the weirdness, danger, the fear, all starting to crowd in on him ready to take him away somewhere where he didn't need to worry about it for a while, but Jack fought it.  He couldn't let reaction get him. Not yet.  He couldn't let go, not while Danny was like this, not while he still needed him. 

Jack screwed his eye shut, then opened them again.  Trying to clear his head, get his thoughts together so he could say something to make Boogie help Daniel, but when he was able to focus again he saw the witch doctor was way ahead of him, already kneeling beside Daniel, bending over him, his large, gnarled, ochre-coloured hand on Daniel's forehead.  Okay.  That was okay.  Boogie was getting to it.  He'd make Daniel wake up. 

Boogie looked a little longer, frowned, started chanting and made a few passes in front of Daniel's face with his hands. 

Jack continued to kneel at Daniel's side and watch, feeling strangely disconnected, as of all of a sudden he was looking at things through the wrong end of a set of binoculars.  Everything was so far away and moving far too slowly.  He looked down at Daniel lying unmoving beside him, knew there was something wrong about him being that way, knew he should be concerned, but somehow couldn't rouse the necessary effort.  He didn't need to; it was okay, Boogie was there, he was handling it.  Jack didn't need to be concerned.  Boogie knew what to do.  He'd look after Daniel.  He wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. 

Boogie's lulling, sonorous voice continued, rising and falling in a soothing sing-song as he moved his hands in the air over Daniel's unmoving body.  He was making large sweeping motions, long, steady, rhythmic, starting at Daniel's head, and moving along the entire length of his body.  Jack squinted, sure he was seeing things.  There was something wrong with the air all around Daniel.  It looked cloudy, blurry, kinda mucky.  Nasty.  Ew. Didn't like it.  Boogie didn't either, from the way he was frowning and maybe that's what he was doing with the waving and the singing.  Clearing the air.  It seemed to be working.  Daniel was looking better. Not quite as pale.  Breathing was a little stronger.  But he wasn't moving.  Still wasn't moving.  Why wasn't he moving? 

Boogie stopped with the waving and the singing and was using the x-ray vision on Daniel again.  Frowning.  Big, big frown.  Not a happy face. Not what Jack wanted to be seeing.  He wanted smiling, lots and lots of smiling, not just from the guy with the feathers but from the man lying so quietly between them.  Jack wanted to see Daniel smiling. Up, awake, looking at him, smiling. Himself again.  Okay.  As soon as he could see Daniel smiling then he'd know it was okay to lie down and rest for a while.  He really wanted to see Daniel smiling again.  Almost as much as he wanted to lie down. 

Boogie turned dark, questioning eyes on Jack, making him wince beneath the scrutiny.  Oh no, now it was his turn for the radar eyes.  Not again.  He'd had just about enough of being turned inside out.  The witch doctor pointed at Daniel, and then grabbed Jack's hand.  Jack watched him through a wondering haze as Boogie opened his hand and placed it, palm flat, on Jack's chest.  Jack looked down at his own hand on his heart and then up at the man holding it there. Boogie's wise eyes were heavy with meaning.  Asking him something - Boogie was asking him something.  Boogie didn't lose the eye contact between them and was still asking his question as he moved Jack's hand and made him reach across until it was pressed firmly to Daniel's chest. 

Daniel's skin was cool, but he was warm.  So warm beneath Jack's hand.  Chest slightly rising and falling, his heart beating slowly, sluggishly, as if it was fighting.  Fighting for every precious stroke.  The feel of its tenacious, struggling rhythm seemed to move up his arm, resonating inside him, calling, needing him.  Daniel, Daniel needed him.  Needed his help.  A bit of strength, a bit of help.  He could do that.  After everything they'd been through to get this far, he could give a little more of himself if Daniel needed it.  No problem 

Questioning eyes boring into him. Boogie was waiting.  Whatever he had to do for Daniel, he needed Jack's help to do it.  He had to give him the word, let him know whatever would help Daniel, he was in. 

"Whatever Danny needs," he said fervently.  "Whatever it takes.  Do it." 

Boogie nodded slowly and - oh, smile.  He was smiling.  Big, big smile.  That was good, right?  He'd said the right thing?  Daniel was going to be okay? 

Jack felt his eyes irresistibly drawn to the man beneath him. Daniel looked serene.  Quiet, still, but his pale, grimy face had a peaceful expression on it.  That was good, nice to see. Daniel could use a little peace after the day he'd had today.  Daniel needed a bath, though.  He looked like someone who'd spent the afternoon crawling through a jungle.  He was quite a sight. Not just filthy, but cut up and scratched.  Oh, that wasn't good.  All banged up like that and sweaty, dirty, not with open cuts and abrasions.  Not good at all. 

Where was his head?  He needed to get Daniel home, get all those cuts seen too.  Daniel had some bad scrapes, bad cuts, some of them bleeding, some from his stroll through the jungle but the bleeding ones probably from the tussle they'd just taken on the rocks.  Bad cuts and scrapes; they shouldn't be open, dirty like that.  They might get infected. He had to get Daniel home, had to get him looked after.  Had to get his head to stop pounding, make the world stop spinning so he could focus. 

Jack wavered dizzily as he stared stupidly around him.  Boogie was chanting, Headache.  Bad headache.  What - what was going on?  Boogie was still holding his hand.  Jack tried to make a joke about being taken, but his mouth wouldn't work.  Boogie turned his hand over, exposing the palm, then before Jack had a chance to protest the witch doctor brought his knife up and cut the palm of his hand, just a small slit, just enough to draw blood.  Jack watched bemused as Boogie did the same thing to one of Daniel's hands, then took a bit of blood from each of them on his finger and drew a squiggly mark on Daniel’s forehead and on his chest over his heart. 

Weird, but why not? 

Oh, wait a minute, they were back to holding hands again.  Only this time, not him and Boogie, but him and Daniel.  Jack didn't mind holding hands with Daniel.  Boogie placed their palms together, the ones that he'd cut, interlacing their fingers, locking them in place.  Jack's other hand got pressed down on Daniel's chest overtop of the mark Boogie had made there. Then the witch doctor made a sandwich of the hands still joined together, enveloping them firmly with his in an emphatic clasp. 

Boogie closed his eyes.  Jack looked down at Daniel.  Daniel still looked pretty out of it.  Just as he was starting to wonder what all the hand-holding was about Boogie gave a loud cry jolting through Jack like he'd just been goosed by a cattle prod. 

Boogie's hands were searing, like burning coals they were so hot.  Jack cried out as enervating fire shot up his arm, seeming to fill his chest with a wild, rejuvenating vitality before arcing on through him and racing down his other arm, through his hand and into the chest of the man lying on the ground.  Daniel's body arched off the ground as if someone had just used a defib unit on him .  He gasped and gulped in a huge draught of air, then fell back to the ground, breathing deeply and steadily, his eyelids flickering as a precursor to returning awareness.  Jack felt Daniel’s hand clench around his with triumphant acknowledgement. Daniel's hand was hot, alive, returning what had been given to bring him back.  The burning had come full circle. 

Boogie removed his hands.  The fire was gone.  Jack’s head was clear again; he was back.  Daniel opened his eyes and looked up at him. 

“I’m free,” Daniel said softly as he smiled up at him.  Beautiful smile.  Wonderful smile.  So good to be able to see it.  So good to see Daniel, alive and smiling at him. 

“You’re alive,” Jack returned fervently. 

“You look like shit,” Daniel bit his lip, trying not to laugh.  At least, that was what Jack thought he was trying to hold back, but he could have been wrong. 

“No thanks to you, Plant Boy,” Jack chided him, roughly rubbing his knuckles across Daniel's cheek in an awkward caress. 

Jack didn’t know if he was going to laugh or cry, but he was definitely going to break down in one of those directions if somebody didn’t do something.  Daniel looked as if he was experiencing a similar inclination to succumb to hysterics. 

Somehow it worked out they met in the middle.  As Jack reached down for him Daniel came up to meet him.  As he tightened his arms around Daniel and buried his head in Daniel’s shoulder, Jack could feel his friend’s arms lock resolutely about him in the same urgent need for firm, physical reassurance of his reality. 

Yeah, they were both here.  Both in one piece.  Sort of.  God only knew how.  Thanking heaven for more than small favours. No wait, no small favour, this.  Not this. He owed somebody somewhere out there big time for this one.  He wouldn’t breathe a word of complaint when pay-back time came. 

Somebody was shaking.  Was it him? Was it the man in his arms?  Jack didn’t know and he didn’t care.  He just grabbed on tighter to the only thing he was really sure of as he started to feel his head filling up with cotton balls again.  Daniel was saying something to him, but he couldn’t make it out.  It seemed as if there were a lot of people around them now.  Was that Carter’s voice?  Jack wondered where she'd come from so fast.  He could have sworn - oh she'd brought Teal’c with her. That was good, handy, saved him having to go out looking for them which was just as well 'cause he really didn’t think he had the energy, just now, to go after them.  His head was really, really hurting… 

Danny’s voice – close to his ear and yet a million miles away… “I’ve got you, Jack…” 

_ So you do, Danny, so you do... _


	4. Hide and Seek

Damned headache.  His head was pounding like someone'd taken a sledgehammer to it. Several times.  What was that smell?  Antiseptic?  Definitely not an ocean breeze. 

Wait a minute, everything smelled different, sounded different - he'd been on that damned island with Daniel - holding Daniel.  Where was  - 

"Daniel!" 

A firm, familiar hand on his shoulder, pressing him gently back into the mattress.  Bed.  He was lying on a bed.  Hospital bed from the smells and the sounds.  Probably exactly where he should be from the way the head and most of the rest of him was feeling. 

Familiar voice, soothing him as much as the touch of the hand. 

"Easy, Jack," Daniel told him softly. "I'm here.  We're back at the SGC.  Everyone.  Sam and Teal'c too.  Everyone's safe. We're all fine.  You can take it easy and just rest." 

Taking it easy sounded like a plan.  His head didn't like him sitting up so quickly.  Jack decided he wasn't going to try opening his eyes until said head stopped rolling over in circles.  He'd just lie back here, let his head settle and enjoy the feeling of that warm, welcome hand carefully stroking his shoulder.  He liked the way it felt.  It was a nice feeling to wake up to.  But as for that 'resting' part. 

Not quite yet. 

"How long…"  It was all he could get out.  His voice sounded rusty, like it hadn't been used in years.  His mouth was dry, his tongue so parched he couldn't get it to work right. 

Daniel's hand, under his head, lifting it up, just a little, so gently.  Not hurting him at all as he moved it. One of those plastic straw thingees brushing against his lips. He could do this. Water, cold, incredibly refreshing.  Just what he needed.  Exactly what he needed.  He didn't even have to ask.  But that was the way it kinda always worked with Daniel.  He just knew. 

Daniel always knew about the stuff that was important to Jack.  The details.  The little things that greased the wheel, made things run smoother, stuff Jack didn't want to have to ask about, ask for, or think about.  Those sorts of details Daniel always seemed to pick up on, and was more than willing to fill in and supply.  Without ever being asked to, looked to or required to.  He just did it. 

Daniel knew everything about him, knew him inside and out, knew him better than any other living soul, knew the stuff he'd told him, somehow knew about stuff he'd never gotten around to saying, even.  But the most important detail of all, what all those accumulated odds and ends of intimate understanding, the sum of all the little parts, what all it added up to \- Daniel hadn't known that one.  Any more than Jack had been consciously aware of it until it had burst upon him unsuspected out there on that cliff, a wondrous little secret he'd buried deep inside, hidden so well from both of them they'd neither of them had a clue it was there. 

It wasn't a secret anymore. It was out.  Said and admitted by both of them to each other.  Confessed by each of them in a moment of duress and danger, when they were both out of their 'right' minds for entirely different reasons.  The moment had passed, the danger was over, and they'd both made it back safe. 

So now the burning question was - what happened next?  What did he want to have happen next?  What did Daniel want?  Jack knew he couldn't exactly boast of having the greatest track record in the world for standing and dealing, but one thing he'd never done in his life was back away from something once he'd finally faced it.  The stuff that really mattered, you didn't say it if you didn't really mean it.  Or if you weren't prepared to put your money where your mouth was for having said it. 

He hadn't just said what he'd said out there to try and coax Daniel back from the edge.  It hadn't been simply a matter of doing what he had to do to get the job done, saying what Daniel wanted to hear because that's what the situation had required him to do.  Those words hadn't been some cheap, situational declaration he intended to deny, call back and try and squirm out of with a 'well, desperate times call for desperate measures' cop-out disclaimer.  That would be a pretty crappy thing to do to anyone.  An unthinkable thing to do to Daniel.  And to himself. 

The hell of it was Daniel would let him do it.  Letting Jack deny and run just might be Daniel's plan.  'I was nuts and you were just trying to help.  No problem, Jack, I understand.'  Off the hook, clean as a whistle. 

Funny thing was, the more Jack thought about it, the more he didn't want to be excused or offered such a convenient out. Or any bail-out options at all.  Realising he was in love with Daniel had been a hell of a shock the instant it had happened, but once he'd gotten over the actual discovery hump, he wasn't having any problems with either the concept or the reality.  Actually, it was kind of a relief, in a strange sort of way.  It explained a lot about some of the thoughts he'd been having, the way he'd been - well, it explained a lot.  Put his mind at ease. He wasn't getting weird in his old age; he was in love with Daniel. 

Hell, he could have done a lot worse!  Lord knows Daniel could do a lot better!  So, that was settled.  He wasn't sorry and he wasn't about to make out like this had never happened and if he just turned his back and ignored it, it would go away.  All he had to find out now was how Daniel wanted to play it.  Daniel had known sooner, had been living with knowing but accepting he could never have what he wanted.  Since way before Sha'uri's death and what he'd inadvertently picked up as a result of it started complicating things.  Hell of a long time to want without hope.  Almost as bad as waiting without hope. Either way, Daniel'd had a crappy time.  And been pretty much screwed for not being able to be.  Ever. 

Since he'd already had way too much practice with the whole 'I can't have it there's no point making myself miserable over it' schtick, it wouldn't be a stretch to figure Daniel might be aiming for continuing to head on down the denial highway.  Putting on the old hair shirt for his good buddy Jack's sake.  So Jack wouldn't have to deal with uncomfortable trivialities like having his best friend complicating his life by being in love with him. 

That sucked.  No way he was going to let Daniel do that to himself.  Daniel wanted him, he was damned well going to have him.  So there!  Hey, he could be selfless too.  The fact he couldn't shake the mental image of Daniel, half-naked and burning with desire for him, touching himself while begging Jack to touch him had nothing to do with it. 

Crap, even he didn't buy that one! 

"How long I been out of it?"  he asked Daniel again once he'd had enough water and Daniel had gently laid his head back down on the pillow. 

"You've been drifting in and out ever since we brought you back," Daniel returned softly, his voice a little on the absent side, his gaze sliding just slightly off centre so while he seemed to be looking right at Jack, they weren't really making eye contact.  With him, but not.  Crap, it was going to be like this, was it?  Daniel's eyes and voice said full blown 'Operation Evasion' was in full effect, but his effort to deny his desire was being seriously undermined by the hand unconsciously, very tenderly stroking the head of the man not buying one word of what he was selling. 

_ Cancel your plans for the road trip, Daniel.  You're not going anywhere without me. _

"The last twelve hours or so," Daniel finished, flushing slightly and shifting in his seat.  "You have a concussion.  For starters." 

"Trust me, I've had worse," Jack grinned at him.  Daniel's eyes momentarily darted back toward him, and he tried to smile.  "How you doing, Daniel?" 

"Fine," Daniel said woodenly, breaking the tenuous eye contact by shifting his gaze just slightly to the right again.  Such a subtle movement, but it spoke volumes to the man seeing it. 

_ You're about to tell me a lie, Dannyboy. _

"Sorry about kicking you around in the jungle back there," Daniel grinned ruefully, his colour deepening with every word coming out of his mouth.  "You know I never would have \- whatever was in that stuff I drank - Janet was saying something about my brain chemistry being out of whack and inhibition inhibiting and hallucinogenic effects and a bunch of other stuff I really wasn't listening to.  It's worked its way out of my system and apparently hasn't had any lasting effects or done any damage other than make me blank out on whatever happened after I started carrying you out of the jungle." 

_ Lying to me, Danny.  You just told Jack a whopper. _

Daniel mustered a weak, insincere smile and shifted his eyes even further to the right.  "So, other than having a few cuts and scrapes I don't know how I came by - " the hand on his head, the one with the slit on the palm, stopped, trembled for an instant and then resumed its tender ministrations - "I'm right as rain." 

_ No problems, no worries, Jack.  I don't remember a thing.  We can both go on like nothing happened out there.  Like the words were never spoken. Best buds, and never, ever anything more, forever and ever, amen. _

"So everything that happened once Plant Boy took his best shot…?" 

Daniel winced.  "I'm - I'm really sorry about that, Jack.  But yeah, once I climbed down out of the tree, it's all pretty much gone." 

"Hell, don't be sorry," Jack reached over and patted him on the arm.  "It wasn't your fault. Maybe you should get juiced up more often.  You had some pretty good moves out there.  I was seriously impressed." 

"When you weren't contemplating killing me," Daniel smiled again, this time with a little more conviction as he started to relax, no doubt convinced Jack was buying his story of convenient amnesia. 

"Okay," Jack let his smile grow wide and unthreatening.  Relax, Daniel, your good friend Jack is buying every word.  Totally fooled here.  "There were a few moments when I had one or two unkind thoughts." 

"One or two?"  Daniel smiled skeptically. His blue eyes were getting warmer, shifting back.  The hand on his head was openly fondling now.  Playing with his hair, brushing it back from his brow.  Caressing.  Daniel didn't even know he was doing it. 

"Okay, several.  Hell of a right cross you've got." 

Daniel frowned and hunched his shoulders a bit.  "If you say so." 

"That thing with the vine - where'd you learn to do that?" 

Openly blushing now and looking a little proud of himself.  "It \- it's nothing.  Just something I used to do when I was a kid." 

"How about the sneaking up on me. Never even heard you coming." 

"Just got lucky." 

"Don't sell yourself short," Jack said sincerely.  "If it wasn't for you fighting her off, I'd be dead right now. It took a lot of guts to stop her from choking the life out of me." 

"I couldn't let her kill you - " Daniel started and then choked off in mid-sentence.  The stroking hand froze, the colour abruptly drained from Daniel's face as he turned furious eyes on the smugly smiling man lying on the bed beside him. 

"You bastard!" Daniel seethed, starting to pull away.  "You tricked me!" 

"Yes, Danny, I did," Jack told him gently as he reached over and touched him on the arm, instantly arresting Daniel's impulse to bolt.  "You didn't leave me any other choice.  You were trying to play this like nothing happened out there, and that's not what I want. Not the way I want things to be between us." 

"Oh?"  Daniel said in a barely audible voice, his jaw set, his eyes hard and staring out over the top of Jack's head.  He wasn't pulling away but Jack could feel him trembling with desperate, fearful tension.  Caught between needing to hear what he wanted to hear and fearing he wouldn't.  "How do you want things to be between us, Jack?" 

"I meant what I said to you out there.  I know you remember.  So do I.  I meant it.  Did you?" 

"Yes," Daniel answered faintly. 

"Are you sorry?"  Jack asked him carefully. 

"Are you?"  Daniel replied warily. 

"I asked first!" 

Daniel scowled at him before replying.  "Not for what I feel.  Never that.  But maybe, for saying.  If - " he glanced at Jack anxiously "If - " 

"If it was something I didn't want to hear. If by some chance I was a dumb-ass who couldn't deal with being in love with his best friend," Jack soothed, starting to gently stroke Daniel's arm.  "Well, I am a dumb-ass for not figuring it out sooner, but not that much of a dumb-ass. The words were said and we both meant them.  It's kinda unrealistic to think we can go on from here as if it never happened.  We can make ourselves miserable trying, or we can have the guts to put our money where our mouths are.  Put up or shut up. Make the best of a bad situation.  Stop crying over spilt milk.  You can jump in here and just stop me, any time. I keep coming up with any more inappropriate clichés I'm gonna have you convinced I'm looking on this like it's something bad instead of the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me." 

Daniel heaved a huge sigh and then turned and finally focussed on Jack.  His eyes were soft with fond understanding as he took Jack's hand and pressed it to his heart.  "You always were a smooth talker," he smiled. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hammond's convinced we're holding out on him, you know," Jack called out to the man busying himself with the refreshments in the kitchen.  He grimaced as he leaned back against the couch and tried to get more comfortable.  Three days in the infirmary under Janet Fraiser's watchful eye had only slightly lowered the 'ouch' factor currently involved in existing while doing everything to significantly elevate the anxiety factor in other parts of his anatomy.  Basically, he was still hurting all over and while all of his aches had been Daniel-inflicted only some of them had anything to do with being thumped. Some of it, but definitely not all of it.  Especially now that he was finally sprung from the infirmary and home again, and the cause of his 'anxiety' was currently only a few tantalising feet away. 

"That's because we are, Jack," Daniel replied reasonably from the kitchen.  "Thanks for backing me up, by the way." 

"Listen, I'm still not exactly sure what happened out there, but one thing I do know, it's over.  I didn't see any reason for anyone else but the two of us to know every stinking detail of what went down on that mountain.  We can't explain it, we sure can't prove it, and you don't need any more grief from Doc McKenzie. Whatever the hell it was you had in you, Boogie's stuff got rid of it.  End of story. You're yourself again. As far as anyone else needs to know you drank some bug juice, took a few rounds out of me, sobered up, the natives let us all go home.  It was all part of some weird-ass ritual we got caught up in before we realised what was happening.  No harm done." 

"Tell that to your head.  And your ribs.  And your knees," Daniel added ruefully. 

"Okay, okay," Jack chuckled, gingerly fingering the stitches bisecting his right eyebrow.  "So I got a few bruises, a couple of stitches and am probably going to have a nifty scar to show for it.  For what else I got out of it," he continued, grinning at Daniel as he walked toward him bearing two hot, steaming mugs, "I'm thinking it was definitely worth a bruise or two.  Or several." 

"Oh?"  Daniel quirked a tentative smile at him as he settled himself on the other end of the couch and handed one of the mugs to Jack.  "And what would that be?" 

Jack frowned at the mug in his hand.  "This doesn't look like a beer," he said accusingly to Daniel.  "I distinctly remember asking for a beer." 

Daniel grinned into his coffee before taking a healthy, appreciative sip.  "That's funny, I distinctly remember hearing Janet say no alcohol for you until you'd finished your meds." 

"You sure pick damned inconvenient moments to do what you're told," Jack sulked before taking a theatrical slurp of his own coffee. 

"Nothing 'convenient' about it at all," Daniel returned tartly.  "If you think it's fun having to listen to a thwarted, sulking, whining and complaining Jack O'Neill - " 

"Nobody's sitting on you holding you down making you," Jack retorted in mock indignation. 

"You're right," Daniel peered narrowly at him over the rim of his coffee cup.  "I don't have to listen to this.  I should just shut you up right now." 

"Ya think?" Jack taunted, setting down his coffee cup. 

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," Daniel said emphatically, placing his own cup down on the coffee table with a bit of a flourish.  "What's more I have some very specific ideas as to how to proceed." 

"Gowan, shut me up.  I dare you," Jack sighed as he leaned slightly back against the couch and waited. 

"You're going down, Colonel," Daniel leered as he began to move across the couch toward the man eagerly awaiting his advance. 

"Oh, I'll be getting to that sooner or later, I'm sure," Jack murmured mere instants before Daniel's cool, soft lips pressed gently against his. 

Jack had spent a lot of time thinking about this moment over the past few days, fantasising and obsessing to the point of continual, painful frustration.  As much as he wanted it and knew he was going to enjoy it he still wasn't fully prepared for how good it felt to have Daniel finally, FINALLY kissing him.  With everything he had, which was considerable. 

No sweet, tentative fumbling here, Daniel was going at him with a passionate gusto bordering on desperation.  A heady mixture of 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this' liberally laced with 'oh God, I came so close to never being able to do this', with just a smidgen of 'I never, ever want to stop doing this' mixed in for good measure.  Jack just laid back and drank it all in, thoroughly agreeing with every fervent, nuzzle, lick and caress while getting in a few like-minded licks and bites of his own. 

"You never answered my question," Daniel groaned into Jack's ear before licking his way back to his mouth again. 

"Whaaaa?" Jack gasped as Daniel's tongue rimmed his mouth before plunging deeply within and sending shocks of pleasure through Jack's entire body. 

It was several noisy, pleasurable seconds before Daniel disengaged long enough to throatily mutter, "What was worth getting a few bruises for." 

"I gotta explain it you haven't been paying attention," Jack growled as he grabbed the back of Daniel's head and pulled his mouth back down to his. 

"OW!"  An involuntary exclamation of pain wrenched out of him as Daniel, quite carried away with his enthusiasm pressed a little heavily against Jack's aching side.  The one that'd had a close encounter with a rock and had subsequently needed four stitches. 

"Jack!"  Daniel cried out, horrified, wrenching himself up and away from Jack's body.  "God, I'm sorry!  Janet said you were supposed to take it easy!  Nothing strenuous!  God, what was I thinking, you're not up for this!" 

"Oh, I beg to differ," Jack grimaced and rubbed his hand against his aching, straining crotch. "I might have to take a raincheque on the trapeze and the rubber chicken but I'm definitely up for some completely basic and uncomplicated groping, fondling and rubbing." 

"That's possibly more information than I really needed in the early stages of our physical relationship," Daniel shook his head and grinned as he stood up, "but the final three items on your list are definitely doable.  Once we get you upstairs, in bed and a little more comfortable."  He held out his hand to the man lying on the couch.  "I promise to be gentle." 

"I was only kidding about the rubber chicken," Jack teased as with Daniel's help he slowly, and admittedly painfully got up off the couch. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack was in his bed.  Comfortably laid out and naked in his bed.  While there was nothing unusual or noteworthy in that occurrence, certainly not lately, what was definitely different this time around was he wasn't alone.  Alone in the bed, yes, but not alone in the room.  Daniel was in his room.  Daniel wasn't in the bed yet, and neither was he naked.  However, the way he was getting that way while he was watching Jack watching him get naked… 

If Jack had thought watching a drugged out Daniel touching himself on that mountain was a turn on what a Daniel in full possession of all his faculties, in his bedroom and doing to himself what he was doing right now was doing to him...   Jack just hoped he was going to be able to hold out long enough for Daniel to actually make it into the bed. 

Jack's throat contracted with longing as Daniel slowly, sensuously unbuttoned his shirt, sliding the material across his chest teasingly before letting go of it and allowing it to slide off his shoulders and down his arms to flutter unheeded to the floor.  Jack quelled a little quiver of dismay as he saw the newly revealed skin of Daniel's torso still bore some healing testaments to his own ordeal.  They both had a few marks, and might yet have some scars to go with them.  But at least they were still here, and still very much alive.  That's all that mattered. 

Daniel slowly ran his tongue across his lower lip and shivered as he lightly rotated his palms across the hardening surface of his nipples.  Grazing, barely touching, teasing himself, teasing the man watching him with hungry eyes, aching fingers and an erection so hard he could hammer nails with it. 

"Oh, God, Daniel, you're KILLING me, here!"  Jack groaned. 

Daniel's eyes were dancing with lust and excitement.  "Do you want to see more, Jack?" he breathed as he began to move his hands slowly down his chest, traversing his abdomen with deliberate, arousing movements, sliding them closer to the waistband of his pants. 

"Uh huh," Jack gurgled helplessly, his eyes riveted to Daniel's hands as he carefully, painstakingly began to unfasten his belt. 

"Don't!" Daniel warned as Jack's twitching, straining right hand began to move toward his equally twitching and impatient erection.  Daniel's pants were undone now, his hands slipping down, inside, beneath.  "You're not supposed to exert yourself. Let me do it." 

"Ah, any idea when that would be, exactly?"  Jack croaked desperately.  "Not that I want to rush you or anything, but I'm not made of stone here." 

"I promise you it'll be worth the wait," Daniel smiled enigmatically as he slipped both pants and briefs off his hips and down his long legs in one fluid, erotic motion that just about undid all Jack's efforts not to become undone all over himself. 

"Oh God!"  Jack groaned again as Daniel kicked aside his last articles of clothing and stood before him in all his revealed and completely rampant glory.  Smiling as he began to walk toward the quivering, nearly crazed man in the bed watching his slow glide toward him through a dizzying haze of impatient, exquisite arousal. 

Daniel was gently carding his fingers through his pubic hair, stroking his long fingers all around, but not touching.  Not yet.  He waited until he'd reached the bed and had carefully straddled Jack's legs before finally taking his own erection in his hand while slowly lowering himself until his scrotum was gliding along the length of Jack's entirely engorged and just about ready to burst groin. 

Oh God, it was too much.  He was going to go.  Jack gritted his teeth and grabbed the back of Daniel's thighs, holding on for dear life as Daniel reached down and touched him for the first time.  Jack cried out and threw his head back into the pillow, pinioned by the spectacle of Daniel beginning to stroke himself in time to the firm, exquisite action his own equipment was getting.  He gripped Daniel's legs more firmly, his hips starting to rock in frantic resonance to the rhythmic, relentless pumping.  Daniel was gasping, his other hand working faster, his body undulating with his growing excitement. 

"Daniel!"  Jack screamed as his orgasm spurted through him, from him, shooting his senses in all different directions as the resulting tide of pleasure all but overwhelmed his awareness.  As he hovered between somewhat still sentient and completely pleasured stupid he saw Daniel's back arching in an echoing bow of ecstasy, heard his 'Jack' shatter the air and felt happily assured a good time was most definitely had by all. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"God, Jack," Daniel groaned.  "Aren't you tired yet?" 

"What's with you kids these days?"  Jack grumbled good-naturedly as he ran an affectionate hand down Daniel's back.  "No staying power." 

"I'm not that much younger than you are, and in case I need to remind you, I've been the one doing all the work." 

"Doctor's orders," Jack grinned.  "Not supposed to exert myself, remember?  Your fault.  You're the one who insisted we play by the rules." 

"You picked a fine time not to argue with me," Daniel replied fondly as he played with Jack's chest hair.  "So, what do you want now?" 

"I got a couple more owies you haven't kissed better yet," Jack informed him. 

Daniel raised his head from Jack's chest and affixed him with a lock of mock horror.  "We can't have that!" 

"Damned straight!  Make with the lips, already!" 

Daniel didn't move.  He stayed where he was, looking down at Jack with a light in his eyes making him want to kiss him right there and then. 

So he did. 

The kiss was long, languid and lingering, but at last Daniel pulled his mouth away. 

"I know I said I was sorry for bashing you about but did I also tell you how much - thank you for fighting for me?  For not letting go?" 

"Only about seven or eight times already, but I'm more than willing to let you make it up to me for as long as you want to." 

"How does the next twenty years sound?"  Daniel kissed him lightly. 

"It'll do for starters," Jack returned, cupping the back of his head, pulling Daniel back down to him again.  "But I warn you, I've got an awfully long memory.  Twenty years might not be enough.  I might need more." 

"How much more?"  Daniel whispered against his lips. 

"All the time you've got," Jack whispered back. 

"Deal," Daniel smiled as he gave himself over to the kiss. 

FINIS 


End file.
